Winning Isn’t for Everyone – Nike Should Know

“Does that make me a bad person?” Well, yes. Sadly. Nike tried to promote the 7 Deadly Sins to sporting virtues. And the public isn’t having it.

Nike debuted its latest ad campaign at the Paris Olympics and, despite the soaring visuals and crescendoing score, it struck all the wrong notes elevating instead a smirking self-absorption and eliciting a head-shaking wince of disapproval.

The Olympic Spirit

The “Winning Isn’t for Everyone” campaign spotlights some of the world’s top athletes and narrates rapid-fire vignettes of their amazing feats impelled with urgent music reminiscent of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice while repeatedly asking, “Am I a bad person?” The ad seems intended to provoke aspirations to greatness by highlighting a take-no-prisoners single-mindedness. Unfortunately, it calls attention to all the wrong attitudes – the mindsets that kill the joy of sports. It is a game plan for misery. The campaign reminds us why we revere the spirit of the Olympics, but merely tolerate the entreaties of Nike.

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Customers Dream as Much as Achieve

Nike sells a lot of shoes and shirts. Most, probably, to people who never made their high school team. That is a beautiful thing. Apparently, we are all looking to improve in even small ways. When we find a sport and some friends to join us we have gained one more point of connection in an often difficult and lonely world.

False Principles Via Base Platitudes

Sport is about many things. For most of us, however, it is not about the declarations made in this campaign: “I’m single-minded; I’m deceptive; I’m obsessive; I’m selfish; I have no empathy; I don’t respect you; … I have an obsession with power; … I have zero remorse; I have no compassion; …I’m maniacal; … I think I’m better than anyone else; … What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.” Scary. A good high school coach, concerned with the spirit of his team, would bench this player on the spot. Maybe also alert counselors and school security.

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7 Deadly Sins

That litany of misanthropic bluster is more than a little weird. Compare it to the list of the “Seven Deadly Sins.” Pride, Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Wrath, and Sloth have been viewed for centuries as the very definition of what makes one “a bad person.” With the obvious exception of sloth, the narration maps perfectly to the deadly sins. How did Nike come to view this list of the ultimate negatives as the paradigm for aspiration? It is almost as though it was the entire point of the campaign.

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Sport is Affirming

What a shame for the athletes to be so associated. It is doubtful that many of the featured superstars would choose to identify with even half of those descriptions. And it feels certain that kids – or adults – starting on our own athletic journeys do not accept the challenge of competition in order to embrace these dark and self-destructive visions. It is obvious to all of us that we love sports, first, for the happiness it brings to us and our friends. The love of fair and friendly competition is the win for everyone that Nike chose to ignore.