Nike: The Brand of Champions

This week, especially because the focus of our class was on textual analysis, I thought it was only fitting to complete another textual analysis of a commercial that I thought did a great job of convincing viewers to purchase their product. If you cannot already tell from the title of the commercial, the commercial was produced by Nike marketers and their main rhetorical appeals revolved around ethos – building the ethos of the Nike brand by associating it with soccer players of high levels of ethos.

The commercial featured a variety of athletes that participate in variety of sports. These include Kobe Bryant, Cristiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Manny Pacquiao, and Xiang Liu. The commercial shows the aforementioned athletes preparing and completing rigorous training, lifting weights, boxing, and jumping rope to prepare for their respective competitions. The athletes regularly change clothes, displaying an array of Nike workout gear and uniforms. The athletes are shown exercising both indoors and outdoors, in a way indicating that the products are reliable and can be used in virtually every climate.  They work out sometimes with a coach and sometimes alone.  The commercial then shows a calendar quickly flipping through dates, fast-forwarding until the date of each competition. Bryant, Ronaldo, Federer, Sharapova, and the rest of the all-stars are then shown finishing and winning their respective competitions.

Nike shows the audience that its product chain can fit the needs of virtually every athlete, whether a track star or boxing master. The company demonstrates its ethos by showing that even the top athletes – with repeated victories tucked under their belts – use its products. It gives off the message that anyone, with determination, practice, preparation, coaching, and – of course – Nike products can become a champion and, ultimately win.

Check out the commercial below!