Evaluation Of Nike’s Advertisement Campaign “Dream Crazy”
As many have seen, this year has been full of many advertisements, but the one I will be evaluating will be Nike’s late 2018 “Dream Crazy” campaign, which had an attitude towards young dedicated athletes and long time supporters of the brand. Advertisements help influence people to buy certain products using plenty of mechanisms to do so. The truth is, that finding certain advertisements that are appealing, is something that many of us struggle to do almost everyday. In this case, Nike found a way to get the attention of the public and use that to gain a large profit from it.
After watching the Nike campaign, I was able to notice how it was successful by using popular figures, motivational attributes, and the emotions of the public through different appeals to keep the viewers entertained. Being a multi billion dollar company, Nike uses the likes of top tier athletes to rake in most of their gross income through paid sponsorships. Most of them are known worldwide, which make selling their products much easier. One of the faces that most of the public know in the advertisement are Lebron James, who is one of the world’s best players within the game of basketball. Another, being Serena Williams, who is the top female in women’s tennis. One other person, being Nyjah Huston, who is one of the world’s most popular skateboarder. One last person who is highly spoken of, is a man named named Colin Kaepernick. Who is well known for his symbolic action of kneeling during the national anthem at football games. This action caused quite the hysteria within the football community, which later on caused him to lose his job as a quarterback in the NFL. Using someone that has so much controversy towards their name, tends to catch the eyes of those who are deeply rooted to the certain topic. When people saw Colin Kaepernick in the ad, questions began to ring in their minds, as they did in mine. Questioning whether he planned this whole situation or if it was really an act of his pure character and not to get any attention.
With Kaepernick being someone who is widely spoken of, you can see why Nike might have chosen him to be the main focal point of the advertisement. Motivation usually tends to make a person do things that they weren’t able to do before and I personally can say that this has affected my life as well. The main slogan of the campaign was “Dream Crazy”, which also goes hand and hand with their brand slogan, “Just Do It”, which therefore tying together in a wholesome perspective. One may ask themselves, what does it mean to certainly “dream crazy”. This can only be translated through one’s personal belief. Personally, I can say that if I didn’t “dream crazy”, I wouldn’t have received some of the opportunities that I have today. At the begin, they depict a skateboarder unsuccessfully attempting tricks off of a railing, and a child wrestling with two missings limbs, with Colin Kaepernick narrating in the background, “If people say your dreams are crazy, if they laugh at what you think you can do, good, stay that way”. This manages to catch the eye of the intended viewer and keep them reeled in for any other messages that the advertisement has to offer. Towards the end of the advertisement, Nike also states, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing it all”. This goes to show how sacrifices can exponentially turn into something great, as long as you believe in whatever you are participating in. This also closed the advertisement with the focal point, that being a believer should always motivate you to do whatever you aspire to do.
Throughout Nike’s history as a high ranking company, they have always been known for making controversial commercials. Emotions have played a large role with gathering an audience in most of their advertisements. For example, in 1995 they released their “If you let me play” commercial, depicted young girls playing different sports, which supported gender equality and women in sports. They also featured a male who was HIV positive and openly gay in their “Just Do It” campaign, earlier that year. So not coming with surprise, this “Dream Crazy” advertisement also came with its own debates. Just a few weeks ago, they launched this advertisement right before the start of the season, featuring Colin Kaepernick, who was known for sparking a movement within the NFL, for protesting against police brutality and oppression in the United States. That being said, the internet was not quite fond of this, even having our nation's president chime into the discussion on twitter. People that didn’t agree with Kaepernick’s views, ended up boycotting the brand and recording videos of them burning some their purchased items. This ultimately caused the companies share stocks to drop by a few percentages. With all of this occurring, one would have believed that this was a terrible marketing idea and that they should of chosen someone else to headline their advertisement. But positively, Nike was able to turn this emotional national conversation into a profitable rise in sales. Personally being a customer of the brand, I believe that this was a great approach to gain the nation's attention and focus their views towards more than one topic with the help of emotional appeals.
In conclusion, having emotional controversies, using motivational attributes, or even just having some of the world’s most famous athletes, can contribute to make a company's advertisement appeal to a certain audience. Creating an advertisement that can appeal not only to the youth but also the older generations, can be really tough to come by. Subsequently, Nike turned a problem that was going on in our nation, and used that topic to help boost their sales. These all reinvigorate the commercials main idea of “dreaming crazy”, which they ended up executing. By them doing so, they might have changed the way that many companies will approach advisements for years to come.
