Monday, October 4, 2010

"JUST DO IT"

The "Just Do it" campaign started in 1988. It was a reaction to excercise craze of the 80s. Reebok put out it's first athletic shoe in 1982 and was "sweeping the aerobics race." Nike needed to do something in response. With the "Just Do it" campaign Nike was able to increase its share in the sports shoe industry from 14% to 43% between 1988 and 1998. It showed that anyone could wear these shoes and be athletic by just doing it.

I find the inspiration behind the slogan particularly interesting. "Just do it" was inspired by words famously spoken by a man named Gary Gillmore. Gary Gillmore was a "notorious spree-killer" who was executed by a firing squad in 1977. His famous last words were, "Lets do it."

4 comments:

  1. Mikal Gilmore, Gary's brother, says in his book Shot in the Heart that Gary's last words were quite different. it's a fascinating book.
    So is The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer, about Gary Gilmore's life and death.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Duncan.
    I'll have to check that out and amend my blog entry. I'll check out the song too. It sounds intriguing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Didn't mean to mislead you.
    The Executioner's Song is the title of a book. It's not a song.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, ha ha. I knew he was a play write. I thought maybe he did a little song writing on the side.

    ReplyDelete