"Winning Isn't For Everyone"

22 July 2024

90s

The winner takes it all

Finally an ad for those who believe they’re better than everyone else. What if the traits we often label negatively, are actually those that drive someone to become an athlete of the highest level? That’s the angle of the latest Nike spot by Wieden+Kennedy Portland directed by Kim Gehrig.

It opens with narrator Willem Dafoe asking ‘am I a bad person?’. This is over a close up of a young girl, who has the energy of someone who’s been told she’s too bossy - and seems to have already learnt to harness this productively. The camera stays close throughout, keeping the intensity high and providing unfiltered attitude from a range of sporting greats including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, LeBron James, Sha’Carri Richardson, Vini Jr, Serena Williams and A’ja Wilson.

Dafoe’s narration later states ‘what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine’, exhibiting a hardlining of ruthless competitiveness we’ve not seen in sports advertising of late. However, Nike does keep it 2024 and clarifies in their comms that “if you have a body, you are an athlete”.

USA

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