Nike's New Cruelly Beautiful Direction

Yes, there's a vibe shift

I’ve gotten more requests to write about this “Winning Isn’t for Everyone” Nike advertisement than perhaps for any other topic. It’s a shockingly good ad, and it really brings the site full circle. My inaugural HoS essay examined how Nike had adopted an anti-competitive, anti charismatic and, yes, anti-male direction in recent years. The article struck a nerve, if I do say so myself. It’s over 5,000 words, but this paragraph about Nike’s foundational pitchman is as close as I can get to quickly summarizing its gist:

What the viewers were drawn to in Michael Jordan, what the ensuing memes drew off of, was what Jennifer Lawrence’s character in American Hustle theorized about a good perfume scent: “Historically, the best perfumes in the world, they’re all laced with something nasty.” So yes, masculinity is toxic. And that’s also what people love about it, similar to how they’re addicted to the rotten rinds in cheese. All that striving for greatness is indivisible from the selfish need to inflict cruelty on your dominated foe. Take away the latter and there is no sports. It’s just exercise. 

Nike had moved away from selling competitive greatness, which necessitates an oddly charismatic cruelty, to a new approach. Kinder, gentler, inclusive. They campaigned against “toxic masculinity,” as symbolized by a working class male accent telling you to man up and lay waste to your foes. That was the old way. The bad way. The rejected way. We’ve evolved past it. We’ve learned so much.

Then Nike’s stock tanked, for a variety of reasons, so now the old way is new again. Enter “Winning Isn’t for Everyone.” Re-enter the old hardcore, striving for greatness “Just Do It” ethos.

So what does this new/old Olympics ad, narrated by Willem Dafoe in the cadence of the Green Goblin, say? And what does the change of direction mean? According to some voices in advertising, the commercial is just too damn mean and ideologically scary.

The Drum, an industry publication, lambasted the ad with an article titled, “Nike will lose if it thinks ‘winning isn’t for everyone’ inspires us.” They couldn’t do it without making an incredible admission, though, which we’ll get into.

“I have no empathy. I don’t respect you. I’m never satisfied. I have an obsession with power.” No, it’s not Andrew Tate’s latest diatribe. It’s the new Nike Olympics ad titled ‘Winning isn’t for everyone.’

Narrated by Willem Dafoe to a frenetic orchestration of strings, it shows top athletes in full competition mode; gruelling facial features and gestures.

And, in my opinion, the messaging is very, very worrying.

Very, very worrying.