The world is awash with the glory of the Olympic athlete. Nike presents a very different view. It’s a brutally honest view of what it takes to be a winner or champion – obsession with power, selfishness, deceptiveness, lack of empathy, wanting to take what another has…ultimately a burning desire to win at all costs. Does that make athletes bad people, the 90-second commercial asks, in a monologue voiced by Willem Dafoe.
The qualities Dafoe notes would certainly make one a bad person, but when juxtaposed with clips of the athletes at the top of their game, they are the qualities necessary for athletes to excel in the world stage.
The insights for the campaign came from the athletes themselves and conversations they have had with Nike over years of partnership. The words are meant to represent the athletes’ inner thoughts when they’re competing on their fields of play and celebrate what it takes to be a winner.
The campaign features several Olympians heading to Paris at the end of the month, including LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Sha’Carri Richardson, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and A’ja Wilson – each driven by the need to win no matter what, plus Kobe Bryant and Serena Williams as they embody the winners’ mindset.
Supporting the hero spot is OOH advertising that will run in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix and Portland in the Us, plus cities in Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, India, Australia, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, France, UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, Turkey and South Africa.
Some photos accompany the tagline, “Winning isn’t for everyone,” while others have more personalised messages approved by the athletes themselves. For example, A’ja Wilson’s portrait accompanies the copy, “I love winning for my haters,” Qinwen Zheng’s photo accompanies the quote, “There’s only one souvenir I want from Paris,” and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s likeness accompanies the phrase, “If you don’t want to win, you’ve already lost.”
The full campaign will also include dedicated athlete extension films and visuals, as well as social media partnerships with many of the athletes. And in Paris, Nike has partnered with the Centre Pompidou, where it will open its Art of Victory exhibition showing the Air Max 1’s design history.
