Nike surprised the advertising community in its latest ad campaign by using a barebones approach and taking on TV, movies and social media use in encouraging people to run.
Instead of the strong visuals the brand is known for, the campaign, from Wieden + Kennedy, employs only white text on a black screen with a robotic voiceover. It shows no running shoes, equipment or athletes.
The message implies people are wasting their time watching TV shows, obsessing with celebrity culture, taking selfies on mobile phones, bantering on social media and in other ways. References are made in certain points to references to The Real Housewives, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. Instead of watching screens they should going out to run or train. “Are we running today?” the ads ask at the end.
The campaign includes six spots, on internet and social media. According to Nike, the purpose of the effort is to “encourage people to give themselves time to exercise, train and participate in sports.”
The central spot, “Time Is Precious,” asks, “Are we scrolling, watching and clicking or are we running today?”
“This commercial is just one minute out of the ten hours a day you spend glued to your screens,” the copy and voiceover read. “That’s 152 days a year. That’s 32 years of your life. Scrolling stuff. Clicking stuff. Emoji-ing stuff. Watching other people’s pictures of the Caffé Macchiato. Or their dog. Or their baby. Or their dog and baby. Or the view out of their airplane window.
“Are you watching vloggers take something out of a box,” it continues. “Watching shows about housewives. Watching shows about housewives in a different state. Swiping left … left … left …”
It ends with the sounds of a ticking stop watch and an alarm ringing, then directs viewers to Nike.com/running.
In “Zombies,” Nike asks, “Are we watching zombies or are we running today?”
“Pictures” poses the question, “Are we scrolling through pictures or are we training today?”
Other executions include “Opinions,” “Friends” and “Celebrities.”
Wrote Tim Nudd in a reviewing for Adweek, “It’s a dark message, to be honest — and thus, quite in tune with the times — but done in a lighthearted way presumably designed to be inspirational and not depressing. It is, though, produced in such a way to be more than a little anxiety-inducing. Which is quite clever, actually. Aren’t ads, after all, just part of the problem?”
Photo courtesy Nike
