Nike Running has launched a stark new text-based campaign – with simple white text on a plain black background with a simple robotic voiceover – urging viewers to stop wasting their time on pointless social media, screen-based nonsense and get outside to run instead.
The sportswear behemoth’s approach is akin to a Trainspotting-style rant that critiques today’s smartphone and social media generation and suggests they stop wasting time on pointless screen-based drivel and to go outside and exercise.
This initiative marks the first time Nike has railed against contemporary cultural and the brand has ditched its signature striking visuals for black and white, copy-only simplicity.
The campaign features six different spots, each attacking one aspect of contemporary screen-led social culture.
The spearhead spot i9s a one-minute ‘choose-life’ style plea: with a Siri-esque robotic voiceover reading out the simple words on the dark background and a closing tagline that reads: ‘This commercial is just one minute, compared to the ten hours a day you spend glued to your screens.’
It is followed by a set of shorter videos that mock the frivolous and senseless social media subjects that seem to dominate so much of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (without specifically naming any of these platforms).
These include ‘Opinions’,
‘Pictures’,
‘Celebrities’.
‘Friends’
and even ‘Zombies’.
The campaign was created by regular Nike agency Wieden & Kennedy Portland.
Comment
We are so used to the slick, stylish and cinematic visuals in Nike’s advertising output, that on the rare occasions that the brand eschews its signature style we notice it.
While we’ve seen this kind of speed-reading spot before – think, for example, of Honda’s ‘Keep Up’ commercial in early 2015,
the most interesting thing about the new Nike work is the socio-cultural comment of the strategy and messaging.
Does the fact that a mass-market brand like Nike is critiquing contemporary culture suggest the start of a backlash against the social media and smartphone generation?
Probably not!
But we might be witnessing something of a socio-cultural slowdown, as Nike is not the only giant brand questioning the role of social.
The Nike campaign launched on the same day that Coca-Cola’s global CMO Marcos de Quinto championed the role of traditional TV advertising.
De Quinto told a drinks industry event in New York that it was television that offered the best return on investment and that the company needed a new approach to digital marketing.
His presentation included one slide showing Coca-Cola’s TV investment delivered an ROI of $2.13 per dollar spent compared with $1.26 for digital, while another trumpeted that social media is a strategy for those who don’t have a true digital strategy.
‘TV is still very, very critical for our business” and that while the drinks giant is trying to make its company digital, this doesn’t mean just putting ads on social media,’ said De Quinto.
The Nike campaign and the Coca-Cola comments also follow on from Facebook admitting (for the third time) that it had misreported metrics – adding to doubts about whether advertisers are getting what they are paying for on social channels.
An issue that also surfaced back in August when some mega advertisers pulled back on their Facebook ad spend plans and when the world’s biggest advertiser P&G announced that it was rethinking its Facebook strategy and shifting spend away from targeted Facebook ads.
Links
Nike:
Nike YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
Nike Twitter:
Nike Facebook:
Nike Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
Wieden & Kennedy Portland:
