Nike has a new commercial having some fun with basketball star Caitlin Clark. It’s a clever take on her ability to hit deep three-point shots, which delights fans no matter who’s shooting. I won’t say I was the best three-point shooter to ride the bench on my high school JV team, but… yeah, I was the best of the all the guys who never played. Just sayin’. 😎 Here’s the ad, then scroll down for more…
For the older readers out there, this ad might remind you of the Larry Bird and Michael Jordan ad where the pair would shoot the ball around the corner, over the tree, through the window, nothing but net! It had absolutely nothing to do with burgers, but it was a fun commercial from McDonald’s…
Nike uses a song called “Boys Wanna Be Her” by Peaches. Here’s the full track…
Great song choice for basically saying anything you can do, I can do better. Of course, we live in a culture that says if boys want to be her, they can. Not awkward at all. I can’t decide which one I like better, McDonald’s or this new one from Nike. On the one hand, McDonald’s is just silly and I kind of wish Nike embraced the silliness more than they did. They hinted towards the absurd idea of unrealistically long three-pointers but didn’t take us over the ledge. I think if you’re going to dabble with a silly idea, go all in. Just do it, if you will. 🤪 But Nike has us just sitting here wanting to laugh, wanting to be inspired, enjoying the idea of her shooting talent but then waiting… and waiting… and waiting. Then nothing. It’s just a random montage of people with different backdrops (school gym, foreign country, podcast, comedy show, rap concert) asking if she can make it from [wherever they are]. It would’ve been nice to see her prove it, even if it’s still absurd.
Maybe Nike wanted to establish Caitlin as a legitimate star by using a wide array of fans and famous people addressing her skills. They didn’t want the ad to be fun AND funny so then what DID they want the ad to be? Safe? Because as I type, now I wonder if they’re trying to make a silly premise serious. Needless to say, they didn’t inspired me to greatness and even worse, I didn’t laugh either. I’m somewhere stuck in the middle, not hot or cold, just a cup of room temperature water… and thinking about a McDonald’s cheeseburger.
-Out of the Wilderness
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