My favorite advertisement is the Nike Courage commercial that aired during the 2008 Olympics. Beyond the fact that it was set to one of my favorite songs, "All These Things That I've Done" by the Killers, the commercial captures all of my focus, all of my emotions and all of my interests. I often find myself looking for the ad on YouTube, two years after it initially aired, because unlike most commercials, it reaches beyond 'advertising' by employing some of the subtlest methods of persuasion like catharsis and ethos to create a true desire within the consumer to pursue Nike's product.
The commercial begins with the motivational statement "Everything you need is already inside," thus priming the viewer to feel a rush of possibility and capability as the commercial runs. Then there is a logical progression of images and video clips of objects and people ranging from a blossoming flower and Usain Bolt’s notorious golden shoes to neurons firing in the synapses of an unknown brain and footballer Cristiano Rinaldo taking an apparently preparatory breath. The commercial picks up its pace by showing actions shots of athletic legends winning and losing, children learning to walk, and traffic buzzing on a dark highway – all images that draw the viewer in, begging for their attention by tapping into nostalgia and still the concept of ‘endless possibility’.
The turning point of the commercial, the peak that is most obvious to me because it sends chills up my spine and draws tears to my eyes is the series of images that essentially tells the success story of Lance Armstrong, from weak and dying in a hospital bed, to the slow recovery, to the last leg of one of his many victorious Tour de France appearances. This alone invokes every persuasive strategy that I have ever known and defines the genius of the commercial. They do not use the Nike symbol or a Nike product to engage the viewer. Instead of telling people what to feel and want, the commercial shows them.
The ad continues after the Lance Armstrong bit with a crescendo in the music and acceleration in the pace of the images. Each of the images is different, showing the greatest of victories, the most hollow of defeats, the most sacred of moments in sports history and some beautiful photographs of nature. The entire commercial culminates to a rather diminutive man running on a track to the exact tempo of the music as the words “JUST DO IT” appear in the same fashion that the quotation at the beginning of the commercial appeared. At this point in my viewing experience, I am typically gasping for breath and feel as though I’ve been whipped through a whirlwind of emotion, memory, compassion and ambition. Even now, having just watched this commercial to refresh my memory of why I adore it so much, I feel as though I am Michael Jordon caressing my trophy, I am Lance Armstrong rising like a phoenix from the ashen depths of cancer, I am the young woman barely making it across the finish line. In my mind, that is the beauty of the world of advertising that I long to be a part of. A commercial does not need to be a crafty ploy to grab the desires of the audience. Advertisements have the power and the resources to inspire people, to invoke a feeling of belonging and a desire to be better while also convincing the consumer that the product at hand may just be what they need to fulfill their wildest dreams.
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