Nike's stylized "Snow Day" commercial
caught my attention right away. The company's use of more than 20 professional
athletes including Rob Gronkowski, Ndamukong Suh, Odell Beckham Jr.,
Le'Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, Elena Delle Donne, Paula Findlay, Paul George,
Draymond Green, Sydney Leroux, Carli Lloyd, LeSean McCoy, Ben
Roethlisberger, Eric Weddle, Steven Stamos, etc., is unique. Even though
the plot of the ad climaxes with a football game, the use of athletes from all
different sports is attempted to appeal to a wide audience. When I saw all
of these athletes together, it made me feel more drawn into the ad because
of my admiration for all of these talented athletes and because I am a fan
of a lot of different sports.
This particular commercial is appealing to multiple
target audiences. Children will often find themselves looking up to these
superstar sports figures as they admire their talent and want to emulate them.
Nike knows this and implicitly tries to make kids feel that if they see
those certain professional athletes wearing nike attire, they can be just like
them by buying nike gear. The ad also applies to an older audience because of
the nostalgia they would feel when they used to be able to play football
on the streets, something that now tends to take place in rural areas.
An interesting concept of the commercial is
the concept of making these athletes appear more like average people. In
the beginning, we see Rob Gronkowski who is pretty massive in sized with
his feet dangling over his bed. In this interesting twist,
professional athletes start emerging one by one out of very ordinarily
looking homes. A concerted effort is being made to make these
superstars appear ordinary. To this end, the athletes are not named and
because they are not wearing their uniforms it takes a few views to determine
the name of some of the athletes.
The whole idea of a Snow Day is catered towards
those living in the East Coast of the U.S. because the West usually
will not get snow. My older brothers were born in Boston where it snow a
lot and quite hard during the winter. I can remember Aaron telling me how
much fun snow days were. He would go to bed hoping that he woke up to the
words snow day. The plot based is a great deal of fun and a nice departure from
plain vanilla Nike ads that just emphasize the superiority of Nike
products.
In my view, I believe the ad is very clever.
Link for the commercial below:
Danny, I strongly agree with who you said the target audience is. Nowadays, I feel that kids just get shoes such as KDs or Jordans just for the heck of it. Either that or kids will get these shoes and think that they will be better players just because of the bright highlighter shoes that they are wearing. Even I will catch myself looking at certain tennis rackets and thinking to myself, if I buy this racket, I'll play better right? Another reason for why people are buying these Nike products is for popularity. Kids or even adults don't want to be seen with off-brand products or clothes, so they feel since Nike is popular (especially within athletes) then if they wear Nike that makes them popular,
ReplyDeleteGood job Danny!
-Matthew Tamanaha
Nike really did a great job with this advertisement. Me personally, whenever I see an ad that features star athletes I immediately pay attention. This ad is especially effective, not only because it includes a bunch of star athletes, but also because kids can relate to it (ok maybe not me). But just seeing a bunch of guys taking the day off from whatever they were supposed to do and cutting loose in a game of snow-filled football sounds pretty fun. Not only that, but when people see some of their favorite athletes playing like a bunch of kids in Nike products, they think that Nike will make them great like the athletes they admire. Once again, great blog Danny!!
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