The Nike Bad Person Commercial – The Narrator, Politics, and the Answer

Nike is all up in our face with their recent “Bad Person” commercial. Instead of being soft, the brand embraces their inner villain with the repeating question, “Am I a bad person?” Backed by a symphony, the ad takes us through clip after clip of athletes competing and being aggressive about it. Take a look then scroll down for more info…

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The Narrator. The familiar voice is actor Willem Dafoe. He’s had some villain roles in his acting career (Spiderman) so using his talents was a very strategic move on Nike’s part.

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The Question. As for the answer to the question, let’s take a look. The narrator admits to being single-minded, deceptive, obsessive, selfish, not empathetic, disrespectful, unsatisfied, obsessed with power, irrational, without remorse, no compassion, delusional, maniacal, elitist, and a thief.

Yes. Yes, you are a bad person. No one will be friends with you. I’d argue that even those traits in an athlete are to be avoided at all costs. Nike is obviously exaggerating the mindset of an athlete because I can’t think of a single real-life athlete who’s had major success with these traits. Actually, just looking at the list I’d say it describes a politician to a tee.

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The Summary. If this ad is meant to inspire athletes to push their limits, to rise up to be #1, it may do that. Certainly it’ll get the heart rate going and adrenaline pumping. But follow the script as a guideline for training and competing, this commercial from Nike is a pretty big fail. There’s a reason “there’s no I in team” is a catchphrase. Because teammates matter. Sportsmanship matters. Having kindness matters. Being the best is a worthy goal, but not at the cost of being a terrible person, a sore loser, and a teammate no one wants to be teammates with. At the other end of the spectrum is this ad from Dick’s Sporting Goods, which I rank higher than the Nike commercial by a long shot.

-Out of the Wilderness