Blog 10: Just Do it

In chapter seven, Serendipity: “Got Milk?,” Steel presents the entire Got Milk? advertising campaign from start to finish in order to illustrate his points presented earlier in the text. In chapters nineteen and twenty, Bruce discusses briefly putting campaign together and the future of the industry.

            Bruce mentions in chapter nineteen that his mother-in-law would say, “come big or stay home,” and he found this principle to apply well to advertising. In a field that is cluttered with ads everywhere, a campaign must find a way to stand out and go against the main stream. I decided to analyze this principle with a great campaign, “Just Do It.”

            It is hard to imagine brands and not to think of Nike. This brand has positioned itself as number one for so many years; it is definitely hard to imagine when it was not. But back in the 80s, Reebok was giving Nike a run for its money. During this time Reebok was selling more tennis shoes than Nike. And although Nike was catering to almost exclusively marathon runners, they understood the importance of expanding. They needed to come up with a campaign that was revolutionary and that would re-position Nike. The slogan was created and the campaign launched around 1988 and sales increased tremendously.  The appeal that separated Nike from the rest was the slogan that touched a human truth and connected with them emotionally. As humans, we are unsure of the unknown and like to keep things safe and not change. But sometimes in order to grow as person and mature, we have to risk some things, take a chance and just gamble it. Nike understood this and encapsulated the push we sometimes need to grow in a few simple words, “just do it.” That push is what reminds many people from Olympians to middle-school volleyball players, to just take that risk and do it. In a crucial time for its business, Nike was able to push forward and “come big,” instead of “go home.” And its success has demonstrated that drive.