Adweek has published an excerpt from Grant McCracken's forthcoming book 'Chief Culture Officer' that touches on Dan Wieden (above) and wieden + kennedy's work for Nike. Here's a wee bit of it:
By the mid-1980s, the running boom was giving way to a fitness craze
and Phil Knight, founder of Nike, wanted his company to take part.
Knight didn't much believe in advertising, but competition with Reebok
was fierce, and he had begun to work with a small shop in Portland,
Ore., called Wieden & Kennedy. Dan Wieden, Portland native and
second-generation ad man, proved an essential asset.
It was Wieden who coined the slogan "Just do it" in 1988. Most slogans
are about the brand ("Coke is it"). They may make a promise ("You can
do it. We can help"), or they evoke a mood ("Bilbao, now more than
ever."). Rarely do they tell the consumer what to do. But "Just do it"
was imperative, impatient, presumptuous, and, well, a little rude. This
was not the sort of thing consumers had heard before.
Acting as unofficial CCO, Dan Wieden had looked into the life of the
consumer. He saw someone struggling to get off the couch and into
fitness, someone suffering aches and pains, someone tempted by excuses.
In "Just do it," Wieden found the three words that allowed Nike to
intervene. Acting as unofficial CCO, Wieden had found a way to help
Nike ride the fitness wave.
Wieden is the author of a 2001 Nike ad called "Tag." This TV spot features a young man on his way to work in a big city. It could be Chicago, New York or San Francisco. (It is, in fact, Toronto.) All of a sudden, he feels a hand on his shoulder. He's been tagged. He's it. Pedestrians scatter. Plazas empty. The chase is on. He almost tags one woman as she enters a bus. He almost tags another but she dives into her car. He almost tags a policeman as he pulls away in his cruiser. Our hero is a wildebeest, charging wildly, hoping for contact. Finally he comes upon a hapless guy in the subway, the only man in the city who doesn't know the game is on. Tag. Now he's it. Frame for frame, "Tag" is probably the most exciting ad ever made. It had the drama of the chase scene in "The French Connection." It won the admiration of the industry and a Cannes Lion Grand Prix.
But it's an odd ad. It takes 20 seconds before we understand what's happening. For a while it's just people running around on a plaza, forcing us to puzzle things out on our own. Advertising is famous for its simplicity, repetition and sometimes sheer stupidity ("But wait! There's more! Act now!"). In the world of advertising, 20 seconds is a client-provoking eternity. Wieden dared to tinker with the rules.
For all that, "Tag" is a straightforward piece of advertising. It is playful. It makes Nike the friend of spontaneity and urban athleticism. It brings the viewer off the couch to the edge of his seat, the very point of the Nike proposition. Every commuter would love to see the tedium of travel exploded this way. Certainly, every athlete (and Nike is filled with athletes) would love to see the city as a competitive space.
You can read the full article here.
Subscribe to
feed