your better is driving me up the wall
The new Nike “My Better Is Better” ad series — the ones with the people yapping, not the ones with the Saul Williams soundtrack — are, for my money, the most utterly obnoxious commercials this side of Apply Directly to the Forehead. A bunch of people looking into the camera and telling me how great they are? That’s it? What’s the message here: Wear Nikes and you too can be a world-class self-regarding jerk?
Have you noticed that in TV spots dealing with sports and sports equipment no one ever seems to be having fun? Nobody seems to be playing sports, but rather using sports to settle some kind of grudge against the world.
I probably sound like Grandpa Simpson, but really: I don’t want to hear it. I’ve never reached for the clicker so fast in my life. But Williams’s “List of Demands” — that I reach for the clicker to turn up.
What’s the message here: Wear Nikes and you too can be a world-class self-regarding jerk?
I think that’s it exactly, I’m sad to say.
— Freddie · Mar 21, 01:59 AM · #
I’ve been fuming for years that the standard sell for products is “this product is so amazing that you will become an evil monster in your pursuit of it.” Beer commercials are often the best examples. Sometimes it’s funny, but more often it makes me sad.
As for the sports angle, they’re selling the idea of dedication to people who manifestly don’t have it.
— Justin · Mar 21, 03:09 AM · #
Also, what’s your take on the “there are no cinderellas” commercial? I like it in spite of myself.
— Justin · Mar 21, 03:13 AM · #
Haven’t seen it, Justin . . . am I missing something?
— Alan Jacobs · Mar 21, 04:57 PM · #
I was just curious about the “no cinderellas” commercials. It fits the pattern as far as no one in the commercials is having fun, but there’s playing of sports going on (if only by implication).
— Justin · Mar 22, 03:06 AM · #
I think you guys are missing some of the fun. I haven’t seen the commercial in a while but I believe they make refrence to someone’s quick smelling like french toast…?
Maybe I’m more sympathetic because I grew up playing backyard sports where half the fun was trash talking your friends/family.
And the “no cinderellas” commercial is a a thing of beauty. Come March Madness people often talk about a higher seeds run deep in the tourney as some sort of magical experience. Really, though, the run was possible because this team worked their asses off. They prepared (in the gym and the film room) for the tournament and that is why they were able to make that run. That is all the commercial is saying.
As for the “no one is having fun” aspect, improving your abilities is a rather large part of the fun in sports.
That being said, there is a lot of this “me against the world” attitude going on in commercials (and in sports) and it is quite ridiculous.
— Dave · Mar 22, 07:33 PM · #
Sports; coma: both words are interchangeable for me. Nike commercials are always a bit bombastic.
— Joules · Mar 24, 02:07 AM · #