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Saturday, December 8, 2012

Run Faster, Jump Higher

"Run faster, jump higher" these are lyrics from "Threw It On The Ground" by Lonely Island (or SNL which ever way you want to look at it). Along with this it is what every sports company wants you to believe their product will let you do. A Nike ad that I saw in Sports Illustrated was this:
I automatically thought of "Threw It On The Ground" mainly just because it's a hilarious song but also because it really is completely true. This is what all companies who are involved with sports do. Just this comment brings tons of people to these companies. The promise of using a product and then excelling at that sport just because of that is completely absurd yet millions of people believe it, and I have to admit I have believed before as well. This message that advertisements use to get customers attention fills their need to dominate.They take advantage of our natural competitiveness as humans to help sell their product and to be completely honest it works quite a good percentage of the time.

Think about it, for this Nike ad they don't even mention anything about any product. Just by introducing the idea of running as fast as a cheetah into our minds makes us automatically think that if we something, anything from Nike then it will make us the most athletic person who is able to accomplish amazing, most of the time impossible feats. Because of this they also try and reach our need to achieve because we are always wanting to reach new heights even if its seemingly impossible at the time.

Who thought, centuries ago, that we would have sent people into space and got them back to Earth safely. They would have thought it was impossible but yet we still worked for years to try and reach that impossible goal and now we've gone and passed it. It is this thrill, this idea of "no way" that Nike is using in this ad to try and reel in their customers.

Along with this use of advertising Nike itself is everywhere. It is another example of reification because it has completely taken over the sports apparel, and equipment in general, industries. I am not saying that it is the only one that has done this. There are many very popular brands in the sporting industry but it seems that Nike is one of the largest, most popular out of all of the others. It has everything from just straight up walking shoes  to soccer cleats and equipment.

 It seems that if somebody wants something Nike is always one of the first companies that they think of, even if they don't end up getting something from them. It is that thought that Nike is striving to get,if we always associate buying various sports equipment with Nike then they will always have a large amount of very loyal customers. In a sense it could even be a lovemark because of how many people prioritize Nike products over anything else. 

2 comments:

  1. Its seems like Nike, especially, uses glittering generalities in their ads to sell their products. I wonder how many people actually think that Nike products will make them run faster.

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  2. Ya it does seem that there are many other brands that are just as good or even better than Nike in that regard but since they don't have the same amount of advertisement they aren't able to get the same amount of customers and fan base as Nike.

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