Just Do It

Just Do It (stylized as JUST DO IT. and set in Futura Bold Condensed)[1] is a trademark of shoe company Nike, and it is one of the core components of Nike's brand. The slogan was coined in 1988 at an advertising agency meeting. The founder of the Wieden+Kennedy agency, Dan Wieden, credits the inspiration for his "Just Do It" Nike slogan to Gary Gilmore’s last words: "Let's do it."[2] The "Just Do It" campaign allowed Nike to further increase its share of the North American domestic sport-shoe business from 18% to 43%, (from $877 million to $9.2 billion in worldwide sales) from 1988 to 1998.[3] In many Nike-related situations, "Just Do It" appears alongside the Nike logo, known as the Swoosh.

This article is about the advertising slogan. For the album by Kim-Lian, see Just Do It (album).
Just Do It.


Campaign

The "Just Do It" campaign launched in 1988 was highly successful, with the company defining the meaning of "Just Do It" as being both "universal and intensely personal." [4] While Reebok was directing their campaign at aerobics during the fitness craze of the 1980s, Nike responded with "a tough, take no prisoners ad campaign." One of the campaign's objectives was to target all Americans—regardless of age, gender or physical fitness level—and Nike's fundamental objective was to represent sneakers as a fashion statement to consumers, which led to Nike apparel becoming worn beyond just as fitness gear. The "Just Do It" campaign went out to a range of media outlets including merchandise, outdoor billboards, print media, and graffiti art.

Throughout the campaign, Nike enlisted a range of people from varying ethnicities and races, as well as numerous notable athletes, in order to attract customers and promote the image of Nike as being reliable to not only everyday customers but professional athletes. Athletes such as football stars Bo Jackson, Ronaldinho and Wayne Rooney, basketball stars Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant and tennis stars Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were used in their advertisements.[5]

the Brooklyn connection

The campaign embodied Nike's image as an innovative American icon associated with success through the combination of professional athletes and motivational slogans emphasizing sportsmanship and health. This led to customers associating their purchases with the prospect of achieving greatness.[6]

was the late 70's in Brooklyn NY. A small pharmacy named Rite Drugs. Employee Marlene, mother in law of owner Steve Smolin, would do her own thing when it came to merchandising stock. She might put the Mylanta antacid in the enema section, for example. She would vehemently rebel when Steve tried to correct her. "Just do it" Steve would have to bark out multiple times at increasing levels of volume before Marlene would sheepishly comply. This routine would be carried out on a daily basis. Imitating Steve, the staff would soon pick up this routine in communicating with one another. "ji ji ji just do it Mario" they would bellow out to one another during the course of the work day (imitating Steve's lisp) It was not long before this utterance reverberated throughout the schoolyards of Bensonhurst. "ji ji ji just do it Joey" was belted out in unison when complained about playing left field. More of the same for basketball games. Employee Lenny Rizzi informed us that even his auxiliary police unit adopted this theme. "just do it" would be the inevitable reply from headquarters when an officer would complain about responding to another domestic disturbance call. "Steve, your famous" noted Lenny at the time.

[7] [8] [9]

2015 Shia LaBeouf internet meme

In May 2015, the performance art group LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner released #INTRODUCTIONS, a half-hour video made in collaboration with Central Saint Martins Fine Art students, comprising a series of short monologues performed by actor Shia LaBeouf in front of a green screen. Each student had been instructed to provide the artists with a script to introduce their work, and the resulting footage was released under a Creative Commons license, enabling the public to freely adapt and remix it.[10] One segment, written by Joshua Parker, in the form of an exaggerated motivational speech[11] dubbed "Just Do It" after the eponymous Nike slogan, became an Internet meme after going viral within days of being released, spawning numerous remixes and parodies, and becoming the most searched for GIF of 2015 according to Google.[12]

30th anniversary and Colin Kaepernick controversy

The "Just Do It" campaign celebrated its 30th anniversary on September 5, 2018 with the release of their video titled, "Dream Crazy". This short video follows in the trend of Nike partnering up with famous or trending athletes and features numerous household named sports figures such as LeBron James, Serena Williams, and Colin Kaepernick.

The involvement of Kaepernick with the advertisement, especially after the context of the controversial act of kneeling during the National Anthem in 2016, gave rise to a whole entire internet debate and social movement against Nike.[13] Many individuals took to Twitter and other social media sites to revolt, adopting hashtags such as, #JustDont or #BoycottNike.[14] Many prior fans of Nike have also showed signs of protest by explicitly demanding that others boycott or even go as far to burn Nike shoes or destroy various other merchandise. Nevertheless, many analysts suggested that the campaign was successful, as the target group of the advertisement has endorsed it.[15]

References
  1. "Nike Classic Branding, with slogan "Just Do It."". SeekLogo. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
  2. "The Birth of 'Just Do It' and Other Magic Words". New York Times. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  3. "Mini-case Study: Nike's "Just Do It" Advertising Campaign". UDOC. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  4. Friedrich von Borries. "Who's Afraid of Niketown?: Nike Urbanism, Branding and the City of Tomorrow". Episode Publishers. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  5. "Nike-Just Do It". Wendy Chung. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  6. "Strategic Analysis of Nike". Condor. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
  7. jenniferl@sedaliademocrat.com, By Jennifer Langdon Contributing Columnist. "Nike campaign is example of free speech". Sedalia Democrat. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  8. "Hope Lutheran Church of Freehold". hopefreehold.org. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  9. "Steve Smolin, The Man Behind the slogan "JUST DO IT" – Dent Sport". Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  10. Pogue, David (June 2, 2015). "The Real Story Behind Shia LaBeouf's Hilarious 'Motivational' Rant". Yahoo. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  11. Edwards, P. (June 3, 2015). "Shia LaBeouf's extremely loud motivational speech, explained". Vox. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  12. Bruk, Diana (December 18, 2015). "Here Are the 10 Gifs that Defined 2015". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  13. Blistein, Jon (September 4, 2018). "Colin Kaepernick Leads Nike's 'Just Do It' 30th Anniversary Campaign". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
  14. "Nike shoes burn on social media as Colin Kaepernick features in 'Just Do It' campaign". Global News. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
  15. "Nike's Colin Kaepernick gamble is already paying off". CNN Money. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
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