Ad Analysis: Nike's Dream Crazy (Essay Sample)

“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” This was a campaign slogan from a Nike ad with Colin Kaepernick. This ad was for Nike’s 30th anniversary for its “Dream Crazy” campaign. The ad contains many different illustrations, celebrities, and a narrator, Colin Kaepernick. The commercial appeals to both pathos and ethos to sell a product and get a message across. 

Nike’s overall reason for releasing this ad was to sell the Brand.  Nike is a company that offers goods, so making commercials help them reach a larger audience and get more potential customers. They used the appeal of ethos to do this by having Serena Williams and Lebron James in the ad. Ethos is defined in Merriam-Webster as the guiding beliefs of a person, group or organization. There is a visual of Serena Williams going from playing tennis when she was younger to her now with much more improvement. They also have Lebron James playing basketball in his youth and going beyond his dream of playing in the NBA to opening a school. This is a great way to appeal to the viewers because they are using well-known people whom fans look up to. In their part of the ad they are dressed in Nike clothing which persuades the viewers to wear the brand and “just do it.” 

When watching the ad, it can be interpreted in many ways. Knowing Colin Kaepernick’s history will allow you to better understand the meaning behind it.  Kaepernick was a quarterback football player for the San Francisco 49ers. He was fed up with police brutality and racial injustice, so he decided to do something about it.  He used his platform to bring awareness to this global issue by taking a knee during the national anthem at the NFL games. This didn’t sit right with people because they thought it was impolite and disloyal. However, it did start a movement.  In future games, other players joined forces with him and took a knee in protest of the racism that was going on. Later on, Kaepernick was let go from the San Francisco 49ers.  He eventually sued the NFL for not recruiting him after his protest.  Nevertheless, he didn’t let this stop him. He continues to speak out about racism on local and national platforms and has gone on to win many awards.  Through his passionate efforts, he was even selected to headline this inspirational commercial being reviewed today.

Considering Colin Kaepernick’s background, he was a perfect candidate for Nike’s 30th-anniversary commercial ad. The company wanted their 30th-anniversary ad to be motivational and came up with the name “Dream Crazy” campaign. The vice-president for Nike, Gino Fisanotti, said: “We believe Colin is one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation, who has leveraged the power of sport to help move the world forward”.  Nike wanted to appeal to the new young generation of athletes and thought it would be great to do so by including Kaepernick. This campaign featured other athletes like Kaepernick who use sports to make a difference and move forward in the world. 

 The broad message from this commercial ad was Nike trying to encourage viewers who have crazy dreams to keep going and reach beyond the stars. You can tell the company was targeting young athletes because you saw the youth shown a lot. I believe that there is also a deeper meaning to this considering Kapernicks background. When watching the ad you will see a guy skateboarding on a handrail alongside stairs and he continuously falls. It then transitions to a wrestler without legs in an intense wrestling match.  The commercial goes on to portray others overcoming odds or pushing themselves to go beyond expectations to challenge odds. The Nike ad consists of the narrator, Kaepernick, giving inspirational messages throughout the two-minute commercial including statements like “Think bigger. Play at the highest level” and “Don’t believe you have to be like anybody to be somebody”.  The narrator stated, “Don’t become the best basketball player on the planet. Be bigger than basketball” accompanied by images of Lebron James. From there it transitions to a rear-view image of Kaepernick with his natural hair flowing while the image of an American flag blows in the breeze in the background. 

 He is then shown for the first time in the commercial turning around and looking at the camera while he states, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything”.  This specific part of the ad was very powerful and meaningful. To me, I perceived it as Kaepernick standing up for what he believes in regardless of what the world has to say. This is because he walks in the opposite direction of the flag, which to me symbolized him forgetting the world’s thoughts and opinions on him and doing what he believes is right. He then says, “Don’t just become a tennis player, become the greatest athlete ever”, with a visual of Serena Williams.  It concludes with the Kaepernick saying, “Don’t ask if your dreams are crazy, as if they are crazy enough”.  Then words pop up on the screen saying “It’s only crazy until you do it.”  “Just do it.”  

Throughout the ad, the company uses the appeal of pathos to persuade the audience. Pathos is defined in Merriam-Webster as a quality that causes people to feel sympathy and sadness.  This was done by having the slow music in the background with athletes facial expressions showing throughout the video. These few gestures gave the audience a sad, yet uplifting feeling. In some parts of the ad, athletes display a serious look and then change to having exciting facial expressions with the music gradually becoming faster with a stronger beat. 

This ad was a great way to highlight Kaeperonicks’s beliefs while advertising Nike. In today’s society racism is a huge thing that isn’t being addressed effectively. The company exemplified that no matter what race you are or what disability you have, don’t let it stop you from achieving your goal. Just because the world may be against you, that doesn’t mean you can’t do something. No matter where you come from or the circumstances you are in, it can’t stop you from reaching your goals and dreams.

After watching the commercial ad, “Dream Crazy”, I think it benefited Kapernick more than it did Nike. Nike did increase in sales, however, Nike’s whole intention is to promote their products, but after watching the commercial it made me more inspired to chase my dreams than to go and purchase something from Nike. On the bright side, I agree with Nike’s big message with this ad, I believe this was a great start, but they shouldn’t stop here. Nike has just begun to scratch the surface of the greater issue. Now they can take it to the next level by conducting interviews with athletes featured in the ad discussing the challenges they faced and how they overcame them. They could also expound upon how others have been impacted by racial injustice and brutality and how they overcame.  This is an opportunity for Nike to be a developer in the market and be a voice for people who otherwise would not be heard. I also believe that the ad wasn’t executed efficiently.