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Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ inspired by convicted killer

AAP

AAP

Nike’s iconic ‘Just Do It’ phrase is one of the most repeated slogans of the 20th century, with the man behind its creation revealing it was inspired by an infamous murderer’s last words.

The slogan was pitched by advertising executive and co-founder of advertising agency Wieden and Kennedy, Dan Wieden, almost three decades ago.

Mr Wieden admitted in a recent interview with Deezen Magazine that it was inspired by Utah killer Gary Gilmore, who was sentenced to death in 1977 for robbing and murdering two men.

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The condemned man reportedly said ‘let’s do this’ as he faced a firing squad.

“I was recalling a man in Portland,” Mr Wieden told Dezeen Magazine, remembering how in 1988 he was struggling to come up with a line that would tie together a number of different TV commercials the fledgling agency had created for the sportswear brand.

“He grew up in Portland, and ran around doing criminal acts in the country, and was in Utah where he murdered a man and a woman, and was sent to jail and put before a firing squad.

“They asked him if he had any final thoughts and he said: ‘Let’s do it’. I didn’t like ‘Let’s do it’ so I just changed it to ‘Just do it’.”

Gilmore had grown up in Portland, Oregan – the city that is home to both Nike and Wieden and Kennedy.

Nike shoes

Michael Jordan’s shoes from the famous flu game of the 1997 NBA Finals. The Nike shoes sold on an online auction for $104,765. Photo: AAP

Nike co-founder Phil Knight, who was sceptical about the need for advertising, initially rejected the idea, Mr Wieden said in the interview with Dezeen Magazine.

Mr Wieden said that in 1988 he recalled Gilmore’s last words and decided to suggest a slightly altered version as the slogan, which first appeared in a Nike advert in the same year featuring 80-year-old runner Walt Stack, The Independent reports.

But then he won them around with the slogan successfully debuting in that TV ad (video above). It marked a new era for the brand.

The slogan, together with Nike’s ‘Swoosh’ logo, helped propel the sportswear brand into a global giant, overtaking then-rival Reebok, and is still in use almost three decades after it was coined.

Campaign Magazine described it as ‘arguably the best tagline of the 20th century’ saying it “cut across age and class barriers, linked Nike with success – and made consumers believe they could be successful too just by wearing its products”.

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