Nike once again is selling the idea of an athletic lifestyle in this “Write the Future” commercial. Nike, as in all of their ads, intends to not sell a specific piece of the equipment that they produce. Instead, they want to sell their idea of sport to the world. This commercial was released right before the World Cup, as Nike took advantage of the perfect kairos for an advertisement like this. Nike not only wants to show off their equipment, but just show the World Cup. They use some of the world’s most famous players so as to appeal to even the American lack of soccer knowledge. Nike wants to show that sports, and in this particular case the World Cup, transcend the traditional ideas that most non-athletes or fans have. Sports are a lifestyle in Nike’s eyes. They use every player, especially Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, to show the effects every action in a game has on the world. “Write the Future” itself is even a ploy to sell athletic success. Nike wants people to feel the need for this success because every successful athlete starts with nice equipment. Everybody knows that Nike can provide the equipment to make you that star athlete that has the world hanging on every single move you make on the field. The commercial wants the viewer to believe that society is built around sports, which would make Nike’s products necessary for life. Nike always does a great job of connecting life and sports, and this commercial is no different. Nike appeals to the sense of wonder of the viewer, who sees the pure star power of the soccer players. They want the audience to say to themselves, “Hey I can be that good if I get some Nike gear!” This is clearly not true, but Nike, as always, gets its point across.
I have found that Nike hardly ever sells a product. It always sells the lifestyle, it always sells the sponsor. I want to do some research and see if there was ever a time that Nike sold a product rather than the lifestyle because it was necessary for them due to their lack of fame.I can't even imagine what they'd sell- a shirt? shoes? weird.
ReplyDeleteProbably one of the best commercials if not THE best commercial I have ever seen! It makes me want to get up and hit the soccer pitch (but I can't forget my Nike gear!). Honestly it makes me miss the excitement that was last year's World Cup and I couldn't resist blogging about it myself! This was definitely an accurate rhetorical analysis.
ReplyDeleteInteresting analysis of Nike's general strategy, did they actually play this on tv? I don't understand how they can manage (both rhetorically and financially) to actually air advertisements this long.
ReplyDeleteRooney and Rinaldo are certainly two very famous faces that Nike is smart to utilize in their ads. This stirs up the excitement of the World Cup for me, though Nike's association of success with a successful athlete is certainly no new sales tactic.
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