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…

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.

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.

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

Harris and Walz Sit Down For First Interview But It’s Not What You Think

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have been taking some heat by not having any official press conferences or interviews since declaring their run for the top office in America. It’s been messy, sure, since Harris commandeered the Presidential nomination for the Democrat party, this after Joe Biden declared he was in it to win it. His party said, not so fast my friend, and installed Harris who somehow skirted around the whole “people voting” thing. A surprise pick with Walz as Vice President and the pair are off to meet the press and tackled the hard questions…. right? Wrong! They DID sit down for an interview but it was with each other. 🥴

One of the comments that stuck out to me is when Walz compared the current state of America as everyone “coming out of their house after a blizzard.” He DOES realize Biden and Harris have been in office for 3.5 years, right? Gosh, I didn’t think there was a football coach I could dislike more than Nick Saban, but here we are.

They go on and on about their feelings and their joy, but I’ll save you 10 minutes by saying this is the most bipolar pair of politicians since Biden/Harris. For example, I’ve heard Tim Walz repeat the line, “Mind your own business!” many times in reference to his work in Minnesota, yet in this conversation he and Kamala talk about everyone treating everyone else like neighbors. Kamala Harris with a dig about Tim being white– “I’m sure you and him (Doug, the white husband) like the same music” which implies the unsaid statement, because they’re both old, white men. What if Tim had said, “Oh, of course you like Aretha Franklin because you’re black!” 🤔

They talk about being the underdog, being a little behind on the scoreboard, and yet all I hear from Democrats is that Harris is leading in the polls. You can’t be an underdog and at the same time claim most Americans support you. The one bright spot was the mention of Prince but all I could think was, “Get my Prince’s name out your effing mouth!”

The honeymoon stage for these two will end soon and when it does, I’ll be dancing in the purple rain of joy.

-Out of the Wilderness

Skillet Is “Unpopular” – Personalities, Horses, and More

Rock band Skillet recently released a new video for their song “Unpopular.” Performing in an empty stadium kind of makes sense, emphasizing the idea of not being popular. No one’s there to watch them shred, rock, tear it all down. The video was filmed The Celebration, a stadium for walking horses in Shelbyville, Tennessee.

Say what you will about the complexity of the lyrics, but the band is surely presenting a perspective many outsiders can relate to; The counterculture, outcast aspect of the song will resonate with a lot of listeners. Since Skillet has been historically known as a band under the Christian music umbrella, a friend of mine to whom I sent the video brought up another iconic song from the late 1990s– DC Talk’s “Jesus Freak.” That’s another song about being on the outside of what culture says is popular but not only existing there, embracing it and holding it up as a banner. That idea also reminds me of Needtobreathe’s “Outsiders.” It’s the sentiment of thriving where you are without getting caught up in society’s game of chase.

Of course, this idea of blooming where you’re planted (as the saying goes) and loving yourself in spite of what society says about it is a main– if the not the central– theme of the movie The Greatest Showman. The song “This Is Me” is the fight song of outcasts everywhere. Sorry if this song reminds you of the new drug commercial Wegovy. 🤪

After I heard “Unpopular” I wondered which personality type was behind the lyrics so I went to that friend of mine (the one who brought up DC Talk). I wanted his opinion because he’s the newest hip insider on all things Enneagram. You know, the personality test? Nick Shell is the author of the book The Guy’s Guide to the Enneagram (click link to order on Amazon) and in our conversation we talked a lot about music, personalities, and Taylor Swift, of course. But Swifty-status aside, he said the lyrics of “Unpopular” most likely identify with the Enneagram 6. I’m in the middle of reading Nick’s book and I would’ve guessed the song was more fitting for a 4 or 8. But as we chatted, it became more clear that it might be that the song was written for as broad of an audience as possible, Nick saying also that “being counter-culture shows up in many numbers: 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9.”

The song lyrics embrace its unpopularity and even question why being popular is something to strive for? What is the cost of reaching that status, anyway?

Take a moment to listen to the song and watch the video. At the very least, maybe it’ll spark images of horses (remember it was filmed in a horse stadium 🙂 ) which are the coolest animals.

-Out of the Wilderness

My Top 5 Favorite Albums of All Time

I’ve written quite a bit about my favorite songs and I think there’s a list out there of my favorite songs of all time. I can’t believe I’ve never put up a list of my favorite albums. Well, that ends today! I could (and did) listen to these albums from start to finish many, many times over the years so for the first one we’re going way back to 1989. It’s the self-titled debut album from DC Talk. The most memorable song from this album is “Heavenbound.”

There would be no “Jesus Freak” without that first iconic album from the band. So the next album, naturally, is one that is etched into my college memories forever. I mean, if you were a Christian college kid in the late 90s and didn’t know this song, were you really a Christian? It’s DC Talk and the album “Jesus Freak,” with the song of the same title being the most popular (obviously 🤪).

Next up is an amazing band called Needtobreathe. They have multiple albums but the one at the top of my list is “The Reckoning.” Favorite song from that album is “White Fences”…

An Americana-style band has an album that hit me right in the heart and still pricks all my goosebumps. It’s The Head and the Heart with the album “Let’s Be Still,” which includes the amazing song “Shake.”

The only true rock band to make the list is Muse. They’re incredible. My favorite album of theirs is “The Resistance” and the song I could still listen to over and over is “Guiding Light.”

Which albums are some of your favorites of all time? Chime in with a comment!

-Out of the Wilderness

Black Man Tells Us Who To Vote For

Recently, a black man (no, not Michelle Obama) went on television to tell viewers who to vote for. Sometimes (most of the time) I just feel confusion when someone presents a case in favor of Kamala Harris and/or Tim Walz. The question that keeps bubbling up in my mind in response is, “Isn’t it obvious?”, and by that I mean this: To most folks, it must pretty plain to see that Democrat politicians pander the most, lie the most, are the greediest, most selfish power hungry “servants” in our government. And yet, some of the population is blind to it all. I just don’t get it. During the 2020 election process, a politician said one of the most racially-biased things I’ve ever heard a politician utter to a black man (the same guy this post is about now). The politician was Joe Biden and the man interviewing him was Lenard McKelvey, better known as Charlamagne tha God. This is the infamous moment when Joe said that if you’re black, you’re voting for him.

You’d think Charlemagne tha God would’ve done a 180 on who he supports after such an obviously racist comment. But Joe isn’t running in 2024 because his party democratically dropped him. Enter Kamala Harris.

“Loved by everyone, voted for by no one.” – Me, Aug. 13, 2024

So where does Charlamagne tha God line up this election cycle? Right back where he was last time. I guess it’s because Joe did such an outstanding job the last 4 years, huh? Here’s Charlamagne presenting his monologue about how Kamala isn’t a DEI hire, even though it was during Charlamagne’s interview, the very same one where Joe said “you ain’t black” that Joe also said he was probably picking a black woman as VP! Charlamagne, if you’re reading this: THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF DEI. You’re about to lose your god status, sir. In the clip below from a few days ago, not only does Charlamagne tha Regular Guy admit she’s done nothing at VP, he praises her for it.

In other words, when Democrats do things, they’re amazing. When they don’t do anything, they’re amazing. Glad that’s cleared up now. It’s just more proof that she wasn’t hired to do anything, it was just about her race and her gender.

Normal, every day American Democrats (not the politicians, I mean people who live in reality) need to see what’s lying (pun intended) open right in front of them. We aren’t electing a mom and a dad, so stop treating Kamala as your mother and for the love of all that is Holy, stop referring to her as Mom-ala. She doesn’t love you. She only uses you. Just like your daddy Barack did.

-Out of the Wilderness