Favorite Ad Campaign

Advertising affects everyone whether they like it or not.  They may not realize it at first, but advertising undoubtedly makes its way into people's minds and often influences that person's decision to buy a product.  I am not in denial.  I know that advertising influences me a lot and I have no intention of trying to stop it.  However, I've never really had a favorite ad per say, but there have been a few that have really stuck with me for a while.  For example, one of the most memorable ad campaigns in my lifetime were the Nike "Just Do It" advertisements.  These ads were huge during the 90s and still remain relevant to this day.  The phrase "Just Do It" was first coined in 1988 by Nike and became one of the biggest success stories in advertising history.  The interesting thing about the phrase itself is where its meaning came from.  The phrase was inspired by the notorious serial killer Gary Gilmore's last words.  Gilmore's last words were "Let's do it."

During the 80s Nike was rivaled by Reebok and Reebok was winning the competition.  In 1988, before Nike's brilliant campaign, the shoe company's worldwide sales stood at approximately $800 million.  Then after the launch of the ad campaign, Nike's share of the domestic sport-shoe business went from 18 percent to 43 percent.  This was over the course of ten years and worldwide sales rose to a phenomenal $9.2 billion.
So obviously Nike took the lead over Reebok and became the most famous sport-shoe corporation out there.

Nike also had an impact on my childhood and that's why it remains one of the most memorable ad campaign for me.  When I was younger I was really into to sports and Nike was the coolest brand around.  At one point, I guarantee every article of clothing I owned was Nike.  Now I may not be as inclined to buy Nike today as I was back then, but I still own a fair amount of Nike apparel.  So if I had to choose a favorite ad campaign, then I guess it would be Nike's "Just Do It" campaign.


http://www.highsnobiety.com/files/2012/10/nike-just-do-it-wieden-kennedy-1.jpg