Selling Truth: How Nike

Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM ADVERTISING & SOCIETY REVIEW E-ISSN 1154-7311 CONTENTS Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality Jean M. Grow Joyce M. Wolburg Abstract: This study tracked the evolution of three "big ideas" in Nike's advertising to women from 1990 to 2000: empowerment, entitlement, and product emphasis. It also takes a longitudinal look at the process from which the ads were created and the way the creative team addressed the constraints upon that process. Based on oral histories taken from key informants employed at Nike and its two ad agencies during that decade, it is the story of how the creative team produced advertising that challenged the media norms affecting the roles of women associated with the institution of sports. Though their creative strategy was simply to speak the truth as they saw it, it frequently pitted them against the executives at Nike in a battle over whose reality would be depicted. If you let me play sports, I will like myself more; I will have more selfconfidence, if you let me play sports. —Nike advertisement, "If You Let Me Play" "It wasn't advertising. It was truth," claimed Janet Champ, chief copywriter on Nike's women's advertising during the 1990s. "We weren't selling a damn thing. Just the truth. And behind the truth, of course, the message was brought to you by Nike." Champ was describing the creative process behind the award-winning ad, "If You Let Me Play," part of the powerful Participation campaign that featured teenage girls on a playground talking about the meaning of sports in their lives). Her remark illuminates the defiance that typified that creative process but also shows the personal meaning she derived from having created the ad, which we will explore in depth through this article. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 1 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM If You Let Me Play (print and TV versions). Few ad campaigns have been as successful as Nike's late twentieth century advertising to women, even though it was also a bold challenge to stereotypes about women in American culture. The creative team of copywriter and art director accomplished what many agency professionals find nearly impossible: challenging the media norms for depictions of gender, meeting the marketing and sales goals for the brand, overcoming the distrust of the client, and extending a highly successful men's brand to women. This evaluation of the advertising process first addresses the construction of gender and the role of advertising, and then tells the story of the creative team's groundbreaking struggle to construct a new reality in Nike's advertising to women from 1990 to 2000 from the team members' own points of view. As they reflect on their work, the creatives tell their stories with the added benefit of hindsight. This study focuses on Nike women's advertising from 1990 to 2000, using oral history. Long interviews were conducted with key informants in Nike's advertising and marketing department; art directors and copywriters from Wieden + Kennedy, the ad agency that began the campaign; and art directors and copywriters from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the agency that took over the campaign in 1997. Interviews were conducted on location at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, and at Wieden + Kennedy, whereas interviews from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners were conducted by telephone. Although the participants were told they would be identified by pseudonyms in published articles to maintain confidentiality, three creatives from Wieden + Kennedy offered the use of their real names: copywriter Janet Champ and art directors Charlotte Moore and Rachel Manganiello. We asked the participants to think about the creative process, the creative ideas that emerged, and how the process unfolded. We also asked participants how their own personal relationships and experiences came into play during the creative processes, how the interactions between the ad agency and Nike affected their work, what constraints they dealt with, and to what extent their creative work was driven by market research versus personal relationships and experiences. The Social Construction of Gender in Sports Although sports may appear to be an institution with equal access for both men and women in the United States, research supports a gender divide that has traditionally viewed sports as a domain for men. A subtle but powerful example is the treatment of men's sports as the standard and women's sports as "other." Contests such as the NCAA basketball tournament are simply "the tournament" when referencing men, but "the women's tournament" when applied to women.1 Differences are further https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 2 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM women.1 but "the women's tournament" when applied to Differences are further heightened through the use of language, such as calling women athletes by their first names but men by their last names, and referring to women athletes as "girls" and "young ladies" but male athletes as "men," "young men," or "fellas" rather than "boys".2 Traditionally, men have dominated the consumption of organized sports, though the gender gap is narrowing. Women are no longer seen as appendages to their husbands or boyfriends; however, some have met resistance from men who feel that sports consumption is still their domain.3 Research also shows that some women who have attempted to participate have been ignored, particularly when their presence upsets the process of male bonding.4 One technique of exclusion is "sports talk," which reinforces male virtues of competitiveness, achievement, aggressiveness, and fearlessness.5 Men have also dominated participatory sports activities6 perhaps because masculine self-identity is so dependent upon sports that some boys who are not successful athletes are regarded as "not real men."7 Although boys' participation in sports has remained the norm and girls' participation the exception,8 girls' participation greatly increased after the passage of Title IX in 1972, the federal law forbidding exclusion from scholastic athletics on the basis of sex. In 1971, 7.5 percent of high school athletes were girls and 92.5 percent were boys, but by 1996 the percentages changed to 39 and 61 percent, respectively.9 Despite these gains, however, findings reported by the Women's Sports Foundation (2001) suggest that most colleges and universities still allocate resources and opportunities disproportionately. In fact, support for male and female athletes roughly follows a 2-1 ratio, even though women outnumber men on most campuses. Though the participation gap in scholastic sports has narrowed, the amount of media coverage still favors men's sports and male athletes.10 Some women's sports, for example, tennis, garner high television ratings but continue to receive limited funding for prize money and television rights in comparison to men's sports. Greater coverage of men's sports can be defended by audience demand; however, the media have been criticized for coverage that trivializes women's sports and female athletes.11 Women athletes have traditionally been photographed in passive roles, showing deference to men. Duncan and Messner's 1998 study contends that, unlike men, women athletes are depicted with "come-on" poses, angled glances, and parted lips reminiscent of soft-core porn.12 Camera angles and childlike voice-overs add to the effect.13 Such depictions and the use of models rather than athletes on the cover of women's sports magazines14 are criticized for sending messages that women are valued more for their appearance than for their athleticism. Men are portrayed as having greater agency or control over themselves and their opponents than women, who are often framed as vulnerable to external forces such as luck.15 Men are also expected to show strength in the face of loss or injury, unlike women who are likely to be depicted as sobbing or being consoled by coaches and other players. Talent, instinct, intelligence, size, strength, quickness, hard work, and risk taking are depicted as the basis for men's success, but talent and hard work take a back seat to emotion, family, and luck for women.16 A full understanding of the evolution of the institution of sports in the United States https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 3 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM A full understanding of the evolution of the institution of sports in the United States requires an in-depth, historical analysis beyond the scope of this paper. Yet, this brief summary shows that Nike's campaign for women began at a time when sports continued to be a predominately male institution, albeit a contested one. The media have played a significant role in this cultural clash, both in constructing new gender roles tied to the institution (e.g., providing coverage of more sporting events that appeal to female audiences) and maintaining existing gender roles (e.g., privileging the coverage of sports that draw large male audiences). The Role of Advertising in Society Historically, the role of advertising in society has been hotly contested by scholars across several disciplines. In the 1980s, two advertising and marketing scholars debated whether advertising merely reflects existing cultural values or also constructs them. There was little disagreement between Pollay (1986) and Holbrook (1987) that advertising reflects culture. Their dispute concerned advertising's ability to construct or shape cultural values, with Holbrook (1987) arguing that advertising was nothing more than a "mirror" of culture and Pollay arguing that advertising was a "distorted mirror" that both reflected and shaped the culture.17 Though their debate was then— and still is—significant among academics and individual members of the advertising profession, the industry as a whole has positioned advertising as a mirror that reflects what already exists, not a shaper.18 One benefit the industry enjoys from this perspective is that it deflects blame for negative consequences away from advertising to other elements in pop culture (e.g., films, television programs, news coverage). Further, when Pollay and Holbrook debated advertising's role in society, they assumed what Cultural Studies scholars call a reflective approach to representation— that meaning lies within "the object, person, idea of event in the real world, and language functions like a mirror to reflect the true meaning as it already exists in the world."19 Nowhere did either Pollay or Holbrook acknowledge the possibility of a constructionist approach—that there is nothing absolute to represent in the first place, that meaning doesn't exist until it is represented, and that meaning is constructed using concepts and signs.20 The constructionist approach does not deny the existence of the material world but maintains that meaning comes from the symbols (e.g., language, ads) that represent the material world rather than from the material world directly. We can also infer that the advertising industry stance toward communication privileges a transmission view over a ritual view. Carey maintained that communication not only disseminates information (the transmission view), but also portrays and confirms a particular view of the world (the ritual view).21 Using news coverage as an example, Carey observed that audience members see news as the portrayal of contending forces in the world with a continual shift of roles rather than a simple dissemination of information. Accordingly, "news is not information but drama ... It does not describe the world but portrays an arena of dramatic forces and action ..."22 Likewise, most ads do more than transmit information. They invite us to participate in a ritual contest between opposing forces where certain depictions construct new institutional roles and others maintain the status quo. Depiction Issues in Advertising https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 4 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Ads typically position products and services as solutions to problems and needs, even the path to happiness; thus, advertisers select certain depictions of people, products, and events for their ability to signify a preferred meaning. Conflicts occur if these depictions offend members of society, for various groups have gone to great lengths to leverage their demands for favorable depictions, even to the extent of boycotting products. Such was the case when Hispanics protested the Frito Bandito of the 1960s23 and Taco Bell's Chihuahua in 1998, claiming that such depictions left Hispanics out of the "economic, political and racial dialogue in this country."24 The history of portrayal issues in advertising for women occupies a vast body of literature that is beyond the scope of this article. However, it is important to examine a few issues affecting the portrayal of women in the 1990s, given that this study offers an evaluation of Nike's advertising to women in campaigns that ran from 1990 through 2000. The 1970s saw a social trend in which women actively protested ads that they found demeaning.25 As women became more vocal in their dissatisfaction with portrayals they found negative, advertisers struggled to decide whether the ads alienated only a small group of "radical" feminists—whom they felt they could safely alienate—or whether advertisers were alienating mainstream customers whose purchasing power made them too desirable to lose.26 Some advertisers began to experiment with portrayals of women that they thought would resonate with feminists.27 Reebok spouted lines such as "I believe babe is a four letter word" and "I believe high heels are a conspiracy against women."28 Finding a way for advertisers to appeal to women in the 1990s was difficult. Advertisers began to realize more fully that there was not one role depiction that accurately reflected the majority of women. In the 1970s and 1980s, advertisers believed women assumed only one of two main roles: homemakers devoted to family and career women climbing the corporate ladder. However, by the 1990s the roles of women were more complex and variable (e.g., more women chose to stay single or to marry later, and women chose occupations from a wider set of options). There were more ways that marketers could go wrong.29 Ad campaigns typically erred on the side of caution and avoided "cutting-edge" representation, thus earning most advertisers the reputation of being behind the times. Despite the changes over time in the depiction of women, one constant has been the emphasis on beauty. Standards have changed over time from voluptuousness to thinness, but cultural norms continue to promote the importance of beauty.30 Furthermore, most women strive to attain the ideal of beauty prevalent in the culture, even if they feel that their efforts fail.31 Unfortunately, those who cannot attain the idealized standard run the risk of becoming invisible,32 being portrayed negatively,33 or being presented as tokens.34 Feminist Critiques of Advertising Given that gendered representations are a primary driver in this study, a brief review of feminist literature and the impact of feminism on advertising offers an insightful point of reference for analyzing early Nike women's advertising. Feminist theory generally suggests that women's experiences are different from men's, and that women's experiences are not accurately reflected because some form of patriarchy dominates the cultural, social, and economic landscape. From that basic premise, a schism emerged in the late 1970s at the end of the "second wave" of feminism. The https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 5 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM schism emerged in the late 1970s at the end of the "second wave" of feminism. The result was two very broad schools of thought that categorized the wide array of feminist concepts that existed. One focuses primarily on the "beauty myth," to use Naomi Wolf's 1991 characterization.35 This position contends that the essence of women's issues is rooted in the ideals of beauty, which condition a woman "to view her face as a mask and her body as an object."36 To understand the artificial construction of gender, we must study how the patriarchy manages this construction.37 The other school also focuses on inequities that women have suffered but articulates feminist perspectives within a broader context, one that more actively integrates the economic landscape. Unlike the former group, these feminists do not ground their arguments in Marxism, for, as Scott contends, "capitalism is not the cause; it is merely the current circumstance."38 Though they are aware of the physical double standard to which women are often held, they view capitalism as offering a way to improve the lives of women.39 They generally look at feminism as a way of working within the system to promote equity at a more fundamental level and look for ways to use capitalism to women's advantage. In fact, the history of feminism has multiple examples of how the market advanced the cause "through the media, through products, through book publishing and lecturing, through employment practices or through advertisements."40 While there are clear differences that divide feminists, all agree that "politics is inherent in feminism."41 The former group of feminists contend that "advertisements serve a political function in reinforcing notions of men as naturally dominant and women as naturally subordinate."42 This articulates a focus on constructions of physicality and beauty as central to feminist critiques. The latter group argues that women have had an impact on marketing since they entered the professional workforce, albeit a small part in the early years, and that feminist influences on marketing gained prominence by the late 1970s.43 They contend that while objectification of women is still commonplace, more images of women exist as equals than the former group is willing to concede. Scott and Nava both contend that capitalism has the potential to advance feminists' causes precisely because of the focus on consumption, and that marketing and advertising functions in ways that can activate women's ability to empower themselves. Scott further states that marketing can advance feminism if women are willing to "act under imperfect conditions."44 Nava� argues that advertising heightened awareness of women's intelligence beyond the sphere of consumption in large part because of women's "expertise" as consumers.45 What many do not know is that women working in the advertising industry have leveraged the depictions of women in advertising throughout most of the twentieth century. As early as the 1920s, Helen Lansdowne Resor headed the women's department and formed a women's editorial board within the J. Walter Thompson agency. Resor had nearly complete autonomy in the management of product design and marketing as well as major control of leading national accounts, including Woodbury soap, Pond's cold cream, and Cutex manicure products.46 In the 1950s, copywriter Shirley Polykoff was charged with selling hair dye to women at a time when the prevailing morality still held that respectable women didn't color their hair. Using a headline that was initially rejected by the all-male executive staff at Life because they found it too suggestive, she successfully challenged the highly https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 6 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM because they found it too suggestive, she successfully challenged the highly sexualized context for hair color with Clairol's Does She or Doesn't She campaign.47 By the 1970s, brands from Dewar's to Right Guard spoke to women with empowering themes.48 Women who work in advertising today are more able to acknowledge the importance of portrayal issues, the impact on society, and their own role in shaping culture. Denise Fedewa, senior vice president and planning director for Leo Burnett's subsidiary, LeoShe, made the following comment: Advertising is so fascinating, because it's both a mirror of the culture and it moves culture forward. I think the best advertising ... taps into a direction that we are moving in, but we are not there yet, and it helps take us there ... I think we've gotten a lot better at doing that ... in tapping into where they [women] are moving next ... I am in a position to have an impact on how women are portrayed in mass culture through advertising.49 Stern and Pe�aloza suggest that women also view advertising very differently than men do. In a 2000 study, Stern argues that women tend to see texts as stories where they can either "lose themselves" or find their own voices reflected.50 Pe�aloza contends that advertising is a dialogic and participatory means of engaging consumers, particularly women.51 In fact, both Stern's and Pe�aloza's propositions articulate what happened between consumers and Nike through its early women's advertising. Thus, the common thread among these feminist scholars is the idea that capitalism and the consumption that drives it offer opportunities for change in women's lives if women are willing to act—and act is precisely what the creative team did. Nike's Promotional Efforts to Men versus Women During its thirty-five-year history, Nike has had unprecedented success and is an undisputed leader in sports marketing. However, it has had greater success selling to men than to women. ... for most of its history, the company has been all about men. Last year revenue from women's products hovered at a paltry $1.5 billion—less than 20 percent of sales—even though the market in women's sports apparel had been skyrocketing. According to the NPD Group, women's sports apparel generated sales of more than $15 billion in 2001—nearly $3 billion more than men's apparel.52 A look at the early years sheds some light on the tactics Nike used for men in comparison to women. During the 1980s and 1990s, Nike was fully committed to selling men's athletic shoes and athletic apparel. The introduction of women's athletic shoes in 1989 and a limited line of women's apparel was a very small venture. Two years after the introduction of women's athletic shoes, sales to women only accounted for 17 percent of Nike's $2.2 billion in domestic sales, compared with 60 percent for Avia, 45 percent for L.A. Gear, and 55 percent for Reebok.53 Analysts believe several factors help to explain why the success with men didn't carry over easily to women. First, Nike had to learn how to design shoes for women, given that the early prototypes for women's athletic shoes were cast from men's shoe models.54 According to Nike brand president Mark Parker, "We never appreciated the whole world of the active lifestyle. We had such a jock heritage—for men and https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 7 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM the whole world of the active lifestyle. We had such a jock heritage—for men and women—that we never saw anything beyond that."55 Second, Nike had to learn to communicate with women. The company assumed that athletes would be equally strong role models to women as to men. However, women didn't treat athletes as heroes in the way that men did. "No woman thinks that she'll be able to run like Marion Jones because she wears shoes that are named after her."56 These issues point to a divide deeper than simple differences in promotion. At the root was Nike's stake in maintaining the status quo for the institution of sports along with the traditional gender roles for participants and spectators of sports. Given that men were Nike's primary target market, Nike had a vested interest in maintaining the roles associated with the institution, which favored men as participants and spectators, and supported different media depictions for men than for women. Historically, Nike's campaign to men positioned the products for "winners"—both professional athletes and non-professionals who took sports very seriously. The Narrative Themes of Empowerment, 1990-1995 During the early 1990s, Nike held a reputation for being what an insider called a "very alpha male company" (Ruth, women's advertising manager) and what an outsider called a "famously high-testosterone company, built on brash ads and male athletic fantasies."57 Nike's success as a men's brand was unmistakable, and few companies, then and now, were willing to risk losing the existing brand equity among its core target market in order to extend the brand to another market. Creatives assigned to the Nike advertising account had to accept those constraints as a given. Their ads were not merely evaluated for their ability to build the brand among women but also for any potential effect upon men, who were the more valuable target. They had to protect Nike as a men's brand at all costs. Otherwise, they were accused of "pinkifying the brand" (Champ). From the beginning, the creative team at Wieden + Kennedy had to balance the corporate needs for building market share against their personal needs for creating socially beneficial messages to women. The dual nature of their task required a continuous negotiation process, which is best understood within the context of the Nike organization. The Nike advertising team generally supported the agency creatives, whereas the top corporate executives constantly challenged them. Because the executives were predominantly men and the creative team mostly women, they worked in a tense environment in which battle lines were typically drawn along gender lines. The first advertising message that the creative team created for Nike—empowerment —began in 1990 and encouraged women to reject traditional "holds" on them and challenged them to be part of a community empowered by fitness. These empowerment ads evolved out of a sense of disenfranchisement that the creative team experienced with messages in the print media. They felt that the images in advertising confined women to traditional institutional roles at a time when many women were beginning to reject them. The mediated images did not match the creative team's reality, nor did they match their perception of other women's realities; https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 8 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM creative team's reality, nor did they match their perception of other women's realities; thus, the creative team embarked on a different course. Janet Champ and Charlotte Moore met behind closed doors to immerse themselves in women's magazines and to talk frankly about the negative messages that limited women's choices. "We found magazines so disgusting ... [that] we made a list of what made us sick ..." (Champ). List. In response, they made a deliberate attack on traditional women's advertising with the campaign List, which ran in spring and fall of 1990. One page of a two-page spread simply listed the things that other women's advertising pressured women to do, wear, or be: "your push-up bra ... your control top pantyhose ... your black anything." The opposite page asked women to challenge that list with the words: "Self-Support From Nike. Just do it." List became a parody of women's ads—an oppositional decoding of mainstream advertising—and was a lone voice in a wilderness of messages about self-improvement and quick fixes. "... There was a big hole. There was a big something ripe for debate. There was a space to be claimed. So we claimed it" (Moore). A critical look at the messages from these initial ads shows that Champ and Moore clearly knew they could use the marketplace to advance feminist causes. Further, they understood that their ads had the power to construct reality, shape culture, and draw women into a ritual for change. Most of their ads are a dramatic enactment of contending forces with women holding the power to make new choices that challenge the institutional order. Evidence that women were taking up the challenge as a result of the ads came almost immediately. After their first ads ran, "... women had begun responding to the 1-800 number ... They were hanging the 'lists' on their refrigerators. They were showing them to their daughters" (Moore). From List, Champ and Moore developed several other campaigns with variations on the empowerment theme. Empathy (spring 1991) spanned the life of a woman from childhood to middle age as she exuded ever greater confidence with the passage of time. The initial pages told of a woman's significance to others: "... You got kissed. You got to kiss back. You went to the prom ... You really fell in love. You became a steady girlfriend. You became a significant other." The final page countered the emphasis on pleasing others with a single line of copy shouting the empowering message: "You became significant to yourself." https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 9 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Empathy. In retrospect, both Champ and Moore felt the early ads could have been stronger if Nike had given them greater latitude, but they were satisfied that the ads opened a groundbreaking dialogue with women that ultimately empowered women to reject traditional messages. Moore also felt the campaign not only laid the groundwork for future campaigns but it meant that the creative team had taken "a first step that the men at Nike could agree upon ... this was our personal victory." This was about ourselves. It came out of the same process. I sat in a room with Charlotte and [we] talked about things that bothered us or that we disliked. In lieu of working out, we wrote out feelings ... (Champ). https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 10 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Marilyn. In fall 1991, the creative team continued to explore the ideas of empowerment in Dialogue I with the use of a narrative technique centering on a single individual. First was Marilyn, which included a picture of a beautiful but vulnerable Marilyn Monroe that contrasted with her persona as a sex symbol. In the ad Monroe's image as a misunderstood, tragic hero is juxtaposed against the depiction of unrealistic standards to which Champ felt women were held. This juxtaposition strongly implied that the unrealistic standards contributed to Marilyn's tragic life, and that women should reject those standards in favor of ones they can control, lest they suffer the same fate. A woman is often measured by the things she cannot control. She is measured by the way her body curves or doesn't curve ... She is measured by 36-24-36 and inches and ages and numbers. By all the outside things that don't ever add up to who she is on the inside. And so if a woman is to be measured, let her be measured by the things she can control, by who she is and who she is trying to become. Because as every woman knows, measurements are only statistics. And statistics lie. After discrediting the old standards as "lies" and feeling empowered themselves, the creative team addressed issues of autonomy, independence, and rebellion. Janet's Mom confronted women's fears that they were destined to repeat history by becoming their mother. The ad closed with the line, "... the only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be." In effect, the ad told women that the old expectations were no longer in place, and that life's drama can have a new ending. It reiterated the point that women are not powerless but can take control of their destiny. Janet's Mom. Many of the early ads had a personal connection. For example, Champ felt a certain kinship with Marilyn Monroe, and the photo in Janet's Mom featured Champ's own mother and sister. More importantly, the ads were meaningful to both women because the themes emerged from the interaction with each other. The two women https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 11 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM because the themes emerged from the interaction with each other. The two women not only drew upon meaningful interactions with significant others in their youth, but they also drew upon significant new patterns from their relationship with one another. Although the campaigns reflected a shared experience between Champ and Moore, they were also about what other women found meaningful. Rather than speaking of "tone and muscles," said Champ, they were digging "down deep [to] the ... truths that created our generation ... We wanted to say the truth back to people in a way they didn't hear before." Furthermore, Champ and Moore trusted their gut instincts instead of relying heavily on market research. Although the Nike corporate executives were hesitant to take chances without the assurance of market research, the continued success of the campaigns convinced the creatives that their instincts were right. I would posit that market research has killed a lot of advertising that was based on effective human dialogue, because it negates faith in intuition. Guts. Living with your eyes open (Moore). To outsiders it seemed the team had found a formula for success that they could sustain indefinitely. However, the creative process took its toll. From Champ's and Moore's perspectives, battles over creative control became a routine part of the job, which widened the gap between them and Nike executives but strengthened their bond with each other. Because they were challenging traditional roles and deinstitutionalizing the role of women and sports, the team had to fiercely defend each creative decision with Nike in order to gain approval. "We were almost always the only women in the room," and often the male executives "killed the stuff, but we came back" (Champ). Over time the battles took several forms, including clashes over budgets and media choices. Champ and Moore felt confident that they could build the brand with meaningful messages for women, but only if they had the funds to do their best work. Although men's advertising was given a large budget that provided ample media choices, women's advertising received a small budget that severely narrowed the media choices and, from the creative team's perspective, jeopardized creativity. Resistance at the corporate level limited the early women's campaigns to print media in order to avoid the expense of television advertising. Moore commented, "... it was to keep women off TV." Consequently, the team fought back by insisting on multiple-page spreads with high quality paper for impact. When Champ and Moore insisted on four pages for Dialogue and eight pages for Empathy, the response from Nike was "These are too long ...You guys are crazy." In the end, Nike took a leap, and the award-winning print campaign was a success.� That leap, however, did not come easy. We had to talk them into long copy again, every single time. They let us ... run wild though, really loved the stuff, because they'd received so many calls and letters ... All the money was going to men's ads so we kind of snuck in with a really cheap campaign—no TV, no stars—and won dozens of awards and got everybody talking about the ads and had thousands and thousands of women and girls calling in for reprints, and Oprah [was] talking about the ads on TV. It was a huge deal. So Phil Knight and Nike were happy—they made money—and we got to do what we wanted (Champ). From Nike's perspective, the campaign succeeded not only because it built the brand and resonated with women but also because it didn't have a negative impact on men. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 12 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM and resonated with women but also because it didn't have a negative impact on men. The campaign left intact the institution of sports and the institutionalized role of men. Sales figures confirmed the success of the ad campaigns. Without losing share for men's products, Nike's sales to women jumped 25 percent in 1990, the first full year of the women's campaign; another 25 percent in 1991; and 28 percent in 1992.58 In spring 1992, the creative team developed new variations of the empowerment theme with Dialogue II (Remember P.E. Class, Emotional, and Goddess). Champ said they wanted to "ask questions that required answers, required some kind of thought process from the consumers ...," and the ads grew out of those answers: "love yourself, take care of yourself, do something for yourself, you're better than you think" (Champ). In Goddess, the team debunked the myth of perfection by removing goddesses from their pedestals and giving their power to humans. "And the goddesses, from some high and chilly mountaintop, will be jealous of you. Let them ... They can't move. But you can. Just do it." Emotional. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 13 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Goddess. In fall 1993, the creative team began connecting the idea of empowerment to fitness more closely, as Dialogue II continued. Boy showed a young girl sitting on a bench, baseball glove in hand, confronting the desire many girls have to participate in sports at the same level as boys—something the creative team knew resonated with girls who faced inequities. The ad encouraged women to be active participants in a new drama—one in which they don't have to feel physically inferior to men. The ad closed by saying: ... And one day when you're out in the world running, feet flying, you'll hear these immortal words calling, calling inside your head—Oh, you run like a girl. And you will say shout scream whisper call back, Yes. What exactly did you think I was? Just do it. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 14 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Boy. Energized by the responses to the ads, Champ and Moore wanted to make Nike women's advertising lead the way by taking the empowerment idea to the highest possible level. Part of the empowerment message meant showing women how fitness, and, to a lesser extent, sports, extend emotional, social, and psychological boundaries as well as physical abilities, a message that was unique to Nike at the time. For the creative team, empowerment meant moving away from depicting "pretty" women and instead using real women, which was a departure from the beauty-equals-success message in traditional women's advertising. In 1993 they [Nike executives] had no intention of portraying hard bodies and women as true competitors so we had to focus on women that were healthy and fit, but not too fit, always pretty (Champ). The empowerment idea also challenged the institutionalized role that valued attractiveness over ability. To do that required a shift in the creative strategy to prioritize performance, but not athleticism. To avoid "pinkifying the brand" the creative team had to step lightly around institutionalized sports. We wanted to show that it isn't about vanity, getting into shape. It isn't about being beautiful or buff or having the perfect stomach. It's about that rush you get, that joy of having your body do things you never thought it was capable of (Champ). Even when athletes were incorporated into the campaigns, the creative team wanted to discourage hero worship, which they didn't think resonated well with women, and concentrate on something real. Moore was confident that they were on the right path —one that was not only right for the brand but one that satisfied their desire to https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 15 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM —one that was not only right for the brand but one that satisfied their desire to change society by giving women more choices. "Finally, as creative people, we had found our home and our voice, and we'd found the most fertile ground for the brand." Although older women were still in the process of becoming empowered, the creative team realized that the new target market of younger women believed they had already achieved it, even if the rest of society, including other advertisers, hadn't yet caught up. The final ads in the empowerment series (Just Do It Stories, fall 1994) began a transition in message strategy to reflect the new stance. Female athletes Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Mia Hamm helped to convey that empowerment is innately a part of women's lives, without encouraging hero worship and overt connections to institutionalized sports. Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Mia Hamm. By fall 1994, Charlotte Moore stepped down as art director because she was "tired of being the women's muse," and Rachel Manganiello stepped in. Champ was also feeling the strain, but she persevered until 1997 when Nike changed ad agencies. Fighting the constant battle for control was extremely draining and might have prompted them to step down earlier had it not been for the public response to the ads, which included more than 500,000 calls and countless personal notes of thanks and photos from women—teachers, parents, and physicians—who provided living proof of a new reality. Further, the creative team had the satisfaction of knowing the ads validated their own views and experiences, some of which came from individual experiences and some of which emerged as a result of their work together. "This was our personal victory," according to Moore, for their work touched a nerve among women, called society to action, and at the same time positioned Nike as the purveyor of justice and equality for women. To reiterate Champ's words, "It wasn't advertising. It was truth. We weren't selling a damn thing. Just the truth ..." Yet, by speaking "truth" instead of "advertising," they created advertising that depicted a new https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 16 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM speaking "truth" instead of "advertising," they created advertising that depicted a new reality. And some would say it was the most effective advertising of all time. Themes of Entitlement, 1995-1997 The second idea—entitlement—began in spring 1995, when Nike lowered the age of its target market to fifteen to twenty-five years, shifted its focus from fitness to sports, and introduced female athletes to the ad campaigns. Many young women believed that participation in sports was their birthright, and the advertising messages needed to reflect this. According to the creative brief, the young women in the target market "don't think about fitness; they play sports because it's fun." On the surface, the shift in message hardly seems controversial; however, the initial dialogue about fitness left sports intact as an institution. By shifting the message to entitlement and placing it within the context of sports, the institution of sports could change unpredictably. Nike had taken the fitness concept as far as it could go and was ready to include women in the arena of sports but didn't want to risk what it had built with men. The solution was to create messages that treaded very lightly on the idea of team sports and avoided the masculine aggressiveness and competitiveness. "Nike's position was in the big men's sports. And, you know [women's was] just kind of siphoning off money" (Rachel Manganiello). The first ad to reflect the entitlement message was "Pursue Pleasure," one of three ads in the Hedonist series. The creative team depicted sports as a symbol of youth and pleasure, even at the cost of pain. "Pursue Pleasure" depicts a woman who feels good after a strenuous run. The headline reads, "Pursue pleasure. No matter how damn hard it may be." The body copy tells readers: We are all basically hedonists. That's what makes us human. And we were made to want pretty simple things: Food. Water. Shelter. Warmth. And Pleasure. We want what feels good ... And one more mile. And she knows that running isn't food. And it isn't shelter. And it isn't even, at the end of the day, really all that warm. But it is how she finds pleasure. And on every road there it is again ... If it feels good, then just do it. Pursue Pleasure. Like the earlier ads, "Pursue Pleasure" engaged the audience in Carey's ritual shift of dramatic roles,59 this time by depicting women as hedonists who work "damn hard" at indulging themselves and encouraging audience members to do the same. The hedonism message was at odds with traditional roles and expectations for women at the time, especially since women lacked as many outlets for leisure as men.60 The ads set pleasure as a guilt-free goal and encouraged women to behave more like men, https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 17 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM ads set pleasure as a guilt-free goal and encouraged women to behave more like men, but with less of the competitive drive. In the end, Nike seemed comfortable with depictions that encouraged women to seek pleasure through sports as long as they didn't challenge other institutionalized roles. Farther into the Hedonist series, the creative team wanted to take greater creative risks by asserting that women athletes were no different than men and that their success should be celebrated as athletes instead of as women. In spring 1995, the campaign evolved to "Hamm," a portrayal of Mia Hamm surrounded by some members of the U.S. National Women's Soccer Team. This ad skirted the team concept by focusing on Hamm as a part of "a community." Yet, by the end of the creative process, the collectivistic message in women's advertising was at odds with the individualistic, aggressive strategy taken with men's advertising. We are all basically hedonists. And there is nothing more hedonistic than an athlete ... Like a team. A community. A group with one common goal ... to win. It doesn't matter who scores ... no matter who gets the ball. They know this thing is a marriage. They do not believe in divorce. If it feels good, then just do it. Hamm. The effort failed to portray women as strongly as the creative team intended because, in reality, it does matter in organized sports who scores and who gets the ball. According to the ad's message, winning was the goal of women athletes, but they could not seek individual recognition as heroes and must be nurturing and cooperative in the process; above all, they must be a community. This depiction clashed with that of male athletes, who were recognized as heroes for their individual accomplishments as well as team effort. As the campaign shifted from empowerment to entitlement, frustrating battles over creative control continued. Champ wanted the campaigns to take a more forceful attitude. Nike has always liked "smiling women" ... always happy, always smiling, never a grimace, as though working out or playing sports is just fun fun fun—nothing hard about it at all! But of course it's not like that (Champ, emphasis in the original). The Hedonist campaign, which included "Pursue Pleasure" and "Hamm," brought Champ closer to her goal but not close enough. Champ found the original tone of the campaign "very edgy" but the final version had to be "really watered down" in order to get Nike's approval. In retrospect, Champ believes they should have killed the campaign, but the idea was right. "We were on to something, but they—the client— wouldn't let us go there." https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 18 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM wouldn't let us go there." ... You should see the original stuff before they made us tone it down. It was fantastic. Very edgy, very sweaty, very much about competition and pain and pleasure and basically just saying—without saying it—that men and women do this for the same reason. We're not sissies afraid to get wet. We had wanted to say this—show this—for years and finally they said oh well okay. But then we really had to tone it down (Champ). Wolves. From that experience the creative team, without Janet Champ for a brief period, tried to combine the ideas of entitlement with the overall brand image in a way that was more "in your face" and more "masculine." "Wolves" (fall 1995) accomplished this by depicting the players' action on a volleyball court in a role that was powerful and anything but traditionally feminine: They are not sisters. They are not classmates. They are not even friends. They are not even the girls' team. They are a pack of wolves. Tend your sheep. Just do it." With Champ back on board, the creative team continued to push the idea of entitlement, which resulted in the highly regarded Participation campaign in 1996, just prior to the twenty-fifth anniversary of Title IX. Champ and the art director went to the Women's Sports Foundation for information, which was used to highlight the inequity between treatment of male and female athletes by accentuating the fact that girls are all too often denied access to sports. All three ads, "If You Let Me Play," "Girl in America," and "Equity," were about justice, diversity, and equity. The statistics became part of "If You Let Me Play." ... If you let me play, I will suffer less depression. If you let me play, I will be 60 percent less likely to get breast cancer. If you let me play, I will be more likely to leave a man who beats me. If you let me play, I will be less likely to get pregnant before I want to. I will learn what it means to be strong. If you let me play sports. If You Let Me Play and Girl in America: TV spots. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 19 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM If You Let Me Play and Girl in America: print versions. The creative team anticipated that the ad would be a hard sell at Nike and braced themselves for more clashes over content. They didn't like what they saw. So we told them, pretty much, that we believed in it and they had to run it and trust us, and they sighed, once again. They were soooooo tired of hearing me say that. And they ran it and they were SHOCKED at what a nerve it touched ... (Champ, emphasis in original). In contrast to "Wolves," which portrayed women with unusual fierceness and independence, "Play's" portrayal of a young girl was extremely sympathetic. It simultaneously highlighted the benefits of girls' participation in sports and blamed society for imposing a system beyond women's control that led to negative consequences in the past. The words "if you let me play" are a sad reminder that young girls can't play sports simply because they want to; they can only do so if those in control permit them. The repetitive theme of contending forces in society returns with an invitation to the audience to participate in the drama by taking sides against injustice and inequity. Amazing Grace. The entitlement theme shifted to the personal and professional accomplishments of individual athletes in Stories We Tell (spring 1997). "The campaign was about giving some dimension to the athletes and to show them off court as well" (Meredith, director of women's advertising). For example, one commercial, "Amazing Grace," showed WNBA point guard, Ruthie Bolton, and her entire family of thirteen spontaneously singing gospel. Although the strategy of showing personal experiences off the court could have been effective despite being more typical in the women's brand than the men's, the end result was softer than the creative team intended. According to Champ, "we wanted to show slam bam wham action, some blood and guts, fire and brimstone, and we couldn't do it." Once again, Nike was not comfortable with depictions they feared would erode elements of the institutionalized roles they wanted to preserve. Despite the continued success in building the women's brand, Nike pulled the https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 20 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Despite the continued success in building the women's brand, Nike pulled the women's account from Wieden + Kennedy, a move that Champ long resented as yet another indication of the lack of respect for her work, in particular, and the women's brand, in general. Product Themes, 1998-2000� The creative team didn't realize it at the time, but Nike's advertising to women from 1990 through 1997 would later be viewed as part of a "golden era." By the latter part of 1997, the creative team was not only constrained by Nike's fear of taking creative risks about women's place in sports, but also by external problems such as public relations problems over labor issues61 and backlash over controversial 1996 Olympic ads.62 Despite the award-winning campaigns that the creative team from Wieden + Kennedy created over seven years, Nike moved the women's account to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. During that transition, all of Nike's advertising took a low profile with no women's advertising appearing for almost a year. When the first ads from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners appeared, the new advertising strategy was to call less attention to the brand in the belief that high profile campaigns with themes of equity and justice would appear incongruous with Nike's labor practices. The irony between brand positioning and corporate actions was simply too blatant, and as one anonymous public relations executive for Nike acknowledged, "... we made ourselves a target." Thus, the stage was set for the third advertising theme, which was a refocused effort on Nike products. This transition period entailed a search for a big idea that could safely sustain Nike's advertising to women. New ads experimented with humor and explored other narrative techniques. After several attempts, Nike finally found its voice but only after a circuitous route. Championship Season emerged in spring 1998 using a documentary style that narrated the drama of a fictitious girls' team during an entire season with ten consecutive spots (nine of which are shown below): "Cut Day," "Getting Lucky," "Your Night," "The Dream," "The Bus," "Suicides," "Winning Shot," "Watching Staley," "Hostile Territory," and "Celebration." For example, "Winning Shot" showed a team member anxiously getting ready for an important free throw with a voiceover telling viewers, "the paper won't say the team. It will say ... S-H-A-U-NA" [the girl's name]. The copywriter believed this was a way their work could "get back to way they [Nike] were doing in the early '90s .... they wanted to bring back this community of strong women" (Taya). To accomplish this, Nike loosened their restrictions on women athletes' personae in order to portray them somewhat more like men, but the message still told the audience that the individual is to be remembered as a part of a "community," not a team. Cut Day, Getting Lucky, and Your Night. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 21 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM The Dream, Suicides, and Winning Shot. Watching Staley, Hostile Territory, and Celebration. Although Championship Season attempted to follow the lead from Wieden + Kennedy, the push was really toward a product focus. Engineered for Women in spring 1999 exemplified this new direction with ads that featured Nike shoes packaged and tucked on store shelves among products related to running. The product focus continued in fall 1999 with the launch of a new sports bra. Unlike any campaign before, the headline for Bra employed a fear appeal to encourage women to use the product, but it included the educational tone of the previous ads: "After years of exercise, what kind of shape will your breasts be in?" The copywriter for the campaign believed they needed to wake women up—to shock them—and wake them up is exactly what they did by running an ad showing women's bare breasts. Because a backlash was predicted, a different version with the breasts covered was available for magazines that requested it. Interestingly, the resistance that the creative team experienced did not come from Nike; instead, it came from the media. "The publications were saying we can't run ads with women's naked breasts. Of course, they can run ads with naked women in perfume ads" (Taya). Bra: Covered and Uncovered. In spring 2000 the creative team at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners shifted the message with No Excuses, a low-profile campaign that safely focused on the satisfaction of working out. All of the ads in the campaign returned to a focus on fitness and featured a "no regrets" message with the shoe as the focal point. In the struggle to balance work and leisure, working out takes priority over work. The copy for E-mail reads: Going to work out. It might just be the only thing you know for sure you won't regret. The Air-Trainer Swift. With its stripped down design and hybrid sole, it's perfect for the courts, the track or the gym. Or anywhere your laptop isn't. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 22 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM No Excuses. No Excuses proved to be a big success for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, but it came too late since Nike had already made its decision to return the account to Wieden + Kennedy in 2000. A low-profile product-focused campaign simply did not work for the women's brand. Perhaps Nike realized the genius of the early women's advertising, but by 2000 the creative team had long since departed from Wieden + Kennedy. Discussion This narrative traces the evolution of three "big ideas" in Nike's groundbreaking advertising campaigns to women from 1990 to 2000—empowerment, entitlement, and product emphasis. Included in the difficult evolutionary process were the Wieden + Kennedy creatives' battle for control with the Nike executives, Janet Champ's and Charlotte Moore's feelings of disenfranchisement with traditional advertising, the meaning they found through interaction, their commitment to advancing feminist perspectives, the addition of Rachel Manganiello to the team, the lack of respect shown toward their creative work with the change of agencies in 1997, the struggle among the Goodby, Silverstein & Partners creatives to find a voice for Nike during turbulent times, and ultimately the validation of the creative work by Wieden + Kennedy creatives. In simpler terms, this is the story of three women who took on a patriarchal company's advertising, hijacked it for feminism, and did it in style. Along the way, the narrative identifies ways the creative teams handled their constraints, primarily by inverting power struggles. After losing some battles over creative control, the creatives learned early on to avoid clashing head-to-head in struggles they couldn't win and found ways to make the constraints imposed upon them work in their favor. When Nike wouldn't set the budget high enough to allow television advertising, they created award-winning print campaigns. When Nike expressed doubts about the creative strategy, they validated their ideas by citing the multitude of letters and calls received. When Nike resisted a particular approach, they revised their work but never let go of their core message, even if they had to soften their approach. The Wieden + Kennedy creatives were unrelenting in trusting their gut instincts in contrast to the Goodby, Silverstein & Partners creatives, who were more malleable. In the end, perhaps that is why the work from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners never found a strong voice and why Nike ultimately returned the account to Wieden + Kennedy. When the Wieden + Kennedy creative team met resistance from Nike, with ever present concerns in the early years about "pinkifying the brand," they were locked into a power struggle over whose reality would be depicted. From Nike's perspective, the reality proposed by the creative team may have seemed off the mark. Or perhaps Nike didn't doubt the accuracy of that reality but instead fought to maintain a patriarchal view of sports and the gendered roles associated with it—one that https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 23 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM patriarchal view of sports and the gendered roles associated with it—one that preferred "pretty, smiling" women, who were not aggressive or competitive. Regardless, what is important is the realization that a social construction was at stake. Ultimately, Nike won some battles, particularly when the conflicts over creative strategy called for so much compromise that the creative team capitulated and later regretted not killing the ad. At other times a negotiated version of reality prevailed, which was not a perfect fit for either side. Yet, in other situations the creative team leveraged depictions that challenged media norms and had the power to change society. The early creative work was originally fueled by anger at the way competing ads depicted women's realities and the determination to avoid being another voice that perpetuated a limiting institutionalized role or an unrealistic standard. The creative team wanted to avoid perpetuating Wolf's "beauty myth," which was no easy task. Furthermore, they wanted to empower women to be oppositional decoders of the traditional messages they found limiting. By resisting pressure from Nike, they sought to actualize Scott's position that marketing can advance feminism. Thousands of letters, emails, and phone calls of appreciation left no doubt about the power of advertising to advance feminism while building the brand. Some mistakenly believed that Nike's early advertising to women was the first to send a feminist message. In reality, it was not the first to challenge institutionalized gender roles, although it was arguably the first to do so with such reverberating impact. Denise Fedewa of LeoShe spoke to that impact with her comment, It was so amazing! We had never seen anyone talk to us that way before! Sure, they were trying to sell Nike to us, but they were also sending a message out there—the real reason women might want to exercise, not just to try to get that Barbie idea, but the other things that might be in it for us ...63 Some may also believe that the campaigns succeeded on multiple levels only because Nike's situation was so unique and the creative talent so extraordinary. After all, the campaigns not only advanced feminist goals and gave women a strong voice of protest against narrow gender roles but also empowered them to think about themselves in new ways—all while meeting the client's needs for selling the product and enhancing the value of the brand. Furthermore, the campaigns accomplished this with beautiful, stylish ads that women posted in prominent places for inspiration. These ads championed a cause; yet, the creative strategy fits with basic goals for producing effective advertising. Fortini-Campbell argues that strategies must encourage consumers to "break into the message" when they see something meaningful rather than creating intrusive messages that coerce consumers to pay attention.64 Similarly, Ries and Trout maintain, "to be successful today, you must touch base with reality. And the only reality that counts is what's already in the prospect's mind."65 Thus, Nike's advertising to women destroys the myth that the commercial success of advertising campaigns must be at odds with socially responsible messages that break down barriers. Advertising campaigns are able to sell "truth" because "facts are unavoidable. Undeniable. And unless you've stopped breathing, they make you think" (Champ). Appendix Ads Grouped by Campaign https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 24 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM List (1990) List. Empathy (1991) https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 25 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Empathy. Dialogue I (1991) Marilyn. Janet's Mom. Dialogue II (1992) https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 26 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Emotional. Goddess. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 27 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Emotional (1992) Boy. Just Do It Stories (1994) Jackie Joyner-Kersee. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 28 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Mia Hamm. Hedonists (1995) Pursue Pleasure. Hamm. Wolves. Participation (1995) https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 29 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM If You Let Me Play and Girl in America: TV spots. If You Let Me Play and Girl in America: print versions. Championship Season (1998) Cut Day, Getting Lucky, and Your Night. The Dream, Suicides, and Winning Shot. Watching Staley, Hostile Territory, and Celebration. Bra (1999) https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 30 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Bra (1999) Bra: Covered and Uncovered. Timecard (2000) No Excuses. Notes 1 Margaret Carlisle Duncan and Michael A. Messner, "The Media Image of Sport and Gender," in MediaSport, ed. Lawrence A. Wenner, 170-185 (London: Routledge, 1998). 2 Ibid. 3 Dallas D. Branch, "Tapping New Markets: Women as Sport Consumers," Sport Marketing Quarterly 4 (December 1995): 9–12. 4 Eileen Fischer and Barbara Gainer, "Masculinity and the Consumption of Organized Sports," in Gender Issues and Consumer Behavior, ed. Janeen Arnold Costa, 84-103 (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994), and Michael A. Messner, Power at Play (Boston, MA: Beacon, 1992). 5 Lynn R. Kahle, Mark Elton, and Kenneth M. Kambara, "Sports Talk and the Development of Marketing Relationships," Sport Marketing Quarterly 6 (June 1997): 35–39. 6 Caroline G. E. Wiley, Susan M. Shaw, and Mark E. Havitz, "Men's and Women's Involvement in Sports: An Examination of the Gendered Aspects of Leisure https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 31 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Involvement in Sports: An Examination of the Gendered Aspects of Leisure Involvement," Leisure Sciences 22 (2000): 19–31. 7 Messner. 8 Michael A. Messner, Margaret C. Duncan, and Kerry Jensen, "Separating the Men from the Girls: The Gendered Language of Televised Sports," Gender and Society 7, no. 1 (1993): 121–137, and Wiley, Shaw, and Havitz, 19–31. 9 Shari L. Dworkin and Michael A. Messner, "Just Do...What?" in Revisioning Gender, ed. Myra M. Ferree, Judith Lorber, and Beth B. Hess, 341–361 (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999). 10 Susan T. Eastman and Andrew C. Billings, "Sportscasting and Sports Reporting: The Power of Gender Bias," Journal of Sport and Social Issues 24, no. 2 (2000): 192–213. 11 Kathleen M. Kinkema and Janet C. Harris, "MediaSport Studies: Key Research and Emerging Issues," in MediaSport, ed. Lawrence A. Wenner, 27–54 (London: Routledge, 1998). 12 Duncan and Messner, 170–185. 13 Don Sabo and Sue Curry Jansen, "Prometheus Unbound: Constructions of Masculinity in the Sports Media," in MediaSport, ed. Lawrence A. Wenner, 202-217 (London: Routledge, 1998). 14 Virginia M. Leath and Angela Lumpkin, "An Analysis of Sportswomen on the Covers and in the Feature Articles of� 'Women's Sports and Fitness Magazine'" Journal of Sport and Social Issues 16, no. 2 (1992): 121–126. 15 Duncan and Messner, 170–185. 16 Messner, Duncan, and Jensen, 121–137. 17 Richard W. Pollay, "The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising," Journal of Marketing 59 (1986): 18–36, and Morris B. Holbrook, "Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, What's Unfair in the Reflections on Advertising?" Journal of Marketing 51 (1987): 95–103. 18 Kim B. Rotzoll, James E. Haefner, and Steven R. Hall, Advertising in Contemporary Society: Perspectives toward Understanding, 3rd ed. (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1996). 19 Stuart Hall, Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices� (London: Sage Publications, 1997). 20 Hall, 25. 21 James W. Carey, Culture as Communication (New York: Routledge, 1989). 22 Carey, 21. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 32 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM 23 O. Nuiry, "Ban the Bandito: Madison Avenue Takes a More Sophisticated Approach to Latino Stereotypes," Hispanic 9 (July 1996): 5–11. 24 E. E. Acquino-Hughes, "Taco Bell is either unaware of racist ads to Hispanics—or firm doesn't care," Detroit News, sec. S, May 6, 1998. 25 Cyndee Miller, "Liberation for Women in Ads," Marketing News 26 (August 17, 1992): 1,3. 26 John B. Ford, Michael S. LaTour, and Courtney Middleton, "Women's Studies and Advertising Role Portrayal Sensitivity: Can Consciousness Raising Reach a Potentially Critical Level?" Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising 21, no. 2 (1999): 77–87. 27 Chad Rubel, "Marketers Giving Better Treatment to Females," Marketing News 30 (April 22 1996): 10. 28 Miller, 3. 29 Melissa Campanelli, "What Women Want," Incentive 167, no. 6 (1993): 57–62. 30 Michael F. Jacobson and Laurie A. Mazur, Marketing Madness: A Survival Guide for a Consumer Society, (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1995), and Mary C. Martin and James W. Gentry, "Stuck in the Model Trap: The Effects of Beautiful Models in Ads on Female Pre-adolescents and Adolescents," Journal of Advertising 26, no. 2 (1997) 19–33. 31 Basil Englis, Michael R. Soloman, and Richard D. Ashmore, "Beauty Before the Eyes of the Beholders: The Cultural Encoding of Beauty Types in Magazine Advertising and Music Television," Journal of Advertising 23, no. 2 (1994): 49–64. 32 Walter Gantz, Howard M. Gartenberg, and Cindy K. Rainbow, "Approaching Invisibility: The Portrayal of the Elderly in Magazine Advertisements," Journal of Communications 30, no. 1 (1980): 56–60. 33 S. Plous and Dominique Neptune, "Racial and Gender Biases in Magazine Advertising: A Content-analytic Study, Psychology of Women Quarterly 21, no. 4 (1997): 627–-644. 34 W. T. Bailey, D. R. Harrell, and L. E. Anderson, "The Image of Middle-aged and Older Women in Magazine Advertisements," Educational Gerontology 19 (1993): 97–103. 35 Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women �(New York: Morrow, 1991). 36 Jean Kilbourne, "Beauty and the Beast of Advertising," in Women in Culture: A Women's Studies Anthology, ed. Lucinda J. Peach, 127–131 (Malden, MA: Blackwell,� 1998). 37 Kristine Blair, "Selling the Self: Women and the Feminine Seduction of https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 33 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM 37 Kristine Blair, "Selling the Self: Women and the Feminine Seduction of Advertising," Women and Language 17, no. 1 (1994): 20; S. K. Foss, Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1989); and Lucinda Joy Peach, Women in Culture: A Women's Studies Anthology (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998). 38 Linda Scott, "Marketing Feminism: The Case for a Paradigm Shift," in Marketing and Feminism: Current Issues and Research, ed. Miriam Catterall, Pauline Maclaran, and Lorna Stevens, 35 (London: Routledge, 2000). 39 Miriam Catterall, Pauline Maclaran, and Lorna Stevens, "Marketing and Feminism: An Evolving Relationship," in Marketing and Feminism: Current Issues and Research, ed. Miriam Catterall, Pauline Maclaran, and Lorna Stevens, 1–15 (London: Routledge, 2000); Mica Nava, Changing Cultures: Feminism, Youth and Consumerism, (London: Sage Publications, 1992); Stephanie O'Donohoe, "Marketing and Feminism: An Evolving Relationship," in Marketing and Feminism: Current Issues and Research, ed. Miriam Catterall, Pauline Maclaran, and Lorna Stevens, 75– 93 (London: Routledge, 2000); Lisa Pe�aloza, "Crossing Boundaries/Crossing Lines: A look at the Nature of Gender Boundaries and Their Impact on Marketing Research," International Journal of Research in Marketing 11, no. 4 (1994): 359–79; Linda Scott, "Fresh Lipstick: Rethinking Images of Women in Advertising," in Women in Culture: A Women's Studies Anthology, ed. Lucinda J. Peach, 131–141 (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998); and Scott, "Marketing Feminism," 16-38. 40 Scott, "Marketing Feminism," 33. 41 Catterall, Maclaran, and Stevens, 3. 42 Peach, 212. 43 Catterall, Maclaran, and Stevens. 44 Scott, "Marketing Feminism," 35. 45 Nava. 46 Linda Scott, Fresh Lipstick (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005). 47 Scott, Fresh Lipstick. 48 Linda Scott, "Interview with Gloria Steinem," Advertising and Society Review 4, no. 4 (2003). Project Muse, http://muse.jhu.edu 49 Eileen Fischer, "Interview with Denise Fedewa," Advertising and Society Review 4, no. 4 (2003). Project Muse, http://muse.jhu.edu 50 Barbara B. Stern, "Advertisements as Women's Tests: A Feminist Overview," in Marketing and Feminism: Current Issues and Research, ed. Miriam Catterall, Pauline Maclaran, and Lorna Stevens, 57–74 (London: Routledge, 2000). 51 Pe�aloza, 359-379. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 34 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 52 5/26/15 11:14 AM Fara Warner, "Nike's Women's Movement," FastCompany 61 (August 2002): 72. 53 Matthew Grimm, "The Sneaker Warriors Gun for Women," Brandweek 33 (March 23,1992): 12. 54 Jean von Dorn, "Constructed Communities: The First Decade of Nike Women's Advertising" (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2001). 55 Warner, 74. 56 Warner, 75. 57 Warner, 70. 58 Campanelli, 57–62. 59 Carey. 60 Karla A. Henderson, "One Size Doesn't Fit All: The Meanings of Women's Leisure," Journal of Leisure Research 28, no. 3 (1996): 139–154. 61 Samantha Marshall, "Nike Inc.'s Golden Image is Tarnished as Problems in Asia Pose PR Challenge," Wall Street Journal, sec. C, September 26, 1997. 62 Sally Beatty, "Fallon McElligott Bets on Barrett, Whiz for Nike, to Take Manhattan," Wall Street Journal sec. C, December 2, 1998; and Stefan Fatsis, "World Cup 1998: Into the Quarterfinals—Nike Tackles Soccer, Nicely," Wall Street Journal sec. C, July 2, 1998. 63 Fischer, http://muse.jhu.edu. 64 Lisa Fortini-Campbell, Hitting the Sweet Spot: How Consumer Insights Can Inspire Better Marketing and Advertising (Chicago: The Copy Workshop, 2001), 30. 65 Al Ries and Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (New York: McGraw Hill, 2001). Acknowledgements Dr. Grow would like to acknowledge the generosity, candor, wit and brilliance of Janet Champ, Charlotte Moore and Rachel Nelson Manganiello. She would also like to acknowledge the generous support of Nike's Nancy Monsarrat. It is women like you who truly make difference in this world. Thank you. Finally, Dr. Grow would like to thank her mentor, Dr. Lewis Friedland. Without his guidance and support, the academic career she enjoys today would not have been possible. Jean M. Grow https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html Page 35 of 36 Selling Truth: How Nike's Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality | Advertising & Society Review 7:2 5/26/15 11:14 AM Jean Grow's research is underpinned by a passion for exploring controversial topics in the advertising industry from untold, inside stories to direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Communication Inquiry, the International Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Advertising Education and others. She recently co-authored a book on creative with Tom Altstiel, an ad industry professional, Advertising Strategy: Creative Tactics From the Outside/In. She has also won numerous teaching awards and continues to remain active in the ad industry through her consulting firm, Grow Creative Resources. Prior to moving to Wisconsin, she worked in Chicago as an artists' representative with agency clients including Foote Cone & Belding, J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett; and corporate clients including Coca-Cola, Kellogg's and Zenith. Professor Grow is an Assistant Professor at Marquette University in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Joyce M. Wolburg Joyce M. Wolburg is the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research in the J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University and an Associate Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations. Her research interests have included cultural values in advertising, college students' responses to anti-smoking messages, the ritual meaning of binge drinking among college students, risk communication strategies, and portrayal issues. Professor Wolburg has published articles in journals including the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Communication, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Consumer Affairs, and Journal of Consumer Marketing. She received her Ph.D. in Communication at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Copyright © 2006 by The Advertising Educational Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. https://0-muse.jhu.edu.libus.csd.mu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2grow_wolburg.html View publication stats Page 36 of 36