Essay - 'Just Do It' - Slogan or Religion?

‘Just Do It’ – Slogan or Religion?

This essay aims to discuss the accentuation of brand power and how it can, with particular regards to Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ advertising campaign, create mass cultural following. A following that can only appear to offer the same life-changing and self-whole appeal as that of religion, many of which have taken thousands of years to attain.

We have been inundated with idealistic notions for years, the belief that one should adhere themselves to a certain, preconceived way of life can be traced back indefinitely. The Bible speaks of Jesus being “the way and the truth and the life” and states, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John, 14:6. The New Testament). In predominantly uneducated and naïve cultures, this reassuring snippet of words could be seen to have influenced populations and cultures to buy into a way of life, essentially acting a lot like modern day brands. Traditional religion as a concept is a lot less secular in today’s society and one could argue that certain brands and icons have almost become accentuated to this mass level of following and dedication, influencing the way many people live their lives and spend their money.

It’s too easy for the average consumer today to believe they are merely purchasing a product for the physical attributes or values it holds; a pair of Nike running shoes because they are the most expensive - therefore the most beneficial to the runner, or a McDonalds food because it is cheap, convenient and above all tasty. What has become so prominently evident over the years is that these companies alongside many other big names, opposed to just products, are in-fact selling this idealistic way of life that should be aspired to by all, and is very much attainable through simply buying into what they have to offer.

“Disney, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Nike use powerful, all-inclusive emotions to target a worldwide audience. They try to embrace as many people as possible, everywhere.’’ – (Olins, 2003, pg.)

This idea of embracing as many people as possible is one that took brands by storm, a constant strive to seek a firm place in the average household, car and palm of the consumers hand, often without them even realising it. Naomi Klein refers to this as “brand essence” - the true meaning of a brand, again, instead of selling a product for its properties, they in fact had to focus on the psychology of the consumer, building bridges, often reassuring them that their product not only provided service, but almost a choice of lifestyle.

For Nike, this was their Just Do It campaign in a nutshell. Nike have been on the receiving end of a very critical stick for many years, much of it due to their manufacturing ethics. Constantly managing to bypass it as a result of their colossal stature in the commodity marketplace, it was the highly scrutinized ‘Just Do It’ advertising campaign that has elevated Nike to this atmosphere of brand gigantism.

“Brand management is one of Nike’s many strengths. Consumers are willing to pay more for brands that they judge to be superior in quality, style and reliability.” (CFAR, 2000, pg.1)

In the late 70’s, Nike took a risky approach with regards to their marketing techniques and decided to pursue the idea that sportswear could be accepted and treated as a product of fashion and not just a functional product. At this time, Reebok were heavily in control of the fitness market, dominating particularly in aerobics equipment, trainers etc. Nike were loosing out big time in their own eyes, and couldn’t afford to not be dominant supplier of this fitness craze that was storming the population. Reassurance was their main aim, and in order to achieve this Nike

“signed several top National Basketball Association (NBA) players, including Elvin Hayes, Spencer Haywood, and Rudy Tomjanovich. Each Player received $2,000 a year… The cost of convincing such big-names” (Frisch, 2008, pg.23)

These celebrity names were the perfect vehicle for the much needed reassurance from consumer audiences, basketball was big business, especially with the youth of America and if everyone’s favourite players could last a game in the shoes what was stopping them from getting a pair? Celebrity faces weren’t Nike’s only goal however, in using these people they very quickly moved away from advertising the products themselves, but the feelings, ambition and inner drive one should have not only when they exercise, but as a lifestyle attitude, and if they don’t already - they should.

“by owning Nikes you were instantly a member of a desirable group. The campaign was easily identifiable and stayed true to its message” (CFAR, 2000, pg.3)

It’s the idea of entering into a desirable group that for many people Nike was about, one can see this evidenced in the estimation that between 88-98 “80 percent of the sneakers sold in the U.S” weren’t used for sporting activities, instead the fashionable, badge value.

“More than an identifiable logo, branding is considered a promise, an experience and a memory. The message must communicate the ambition of the label and the personal and social benefits of association.” – (Hess and Pasztorek, 2010, pg.7)

In the book No Logo, Naomi Klein talks about the controversy that surrounded Nike’s sweatshop ethics, and how the majority of criticism was coming from a predominantly white, middle class society that although held a share in the market, had nothing on the African American consumer base. Nike were still standing strong. The endorsements held by many African American sport stars naturally led to a massive youth following on the streets and ball courts of America, clearly communicating the ‘ambition of the label’ which once obtained allows one to reap the ‘social benefits of association’.

Klein talks of Nike sending out marketers and designers to arouse hype about fresh-of-the-press trainers to the youth culture, preaching the word of Nike and their latest endeavours. “Kids incorporate the brands into gang-wear uniforms” and without it rapidly loose status quo amongst peers and other youth on the street, often causing teenagers to “sell drugs, steal, mug, even kill for it”. Once Nike has imparted the idea that these are the next best thing, the strive to obtain such a commodity is not lead by advertising schemes alone. Peer to peer marketing soon takes on a lot of the responsibility for the “deep inner need”. Alissa Quart adopts this subject in her book ‘Branded – The buying and selling of teenagers’,

“the hard sell of hip-hop and assorted accessories by way of so-called street teams, or marketing youth gangs, that have advertised certain products since the 1980’s” – (Quart, 2002, p.38)

African American teenagers, the majority from disadvantaged backgrounds were starting to put Nike on such a pedestal that it was acting as a social platform for these youth cultures, one that made $130 trainers a necessity. Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism could be applied here, with the youth substituting stereotypical playground behaviour and relations for a pair of trainers, which then start to take on and mediate each others ideas of what is considered ‘cool’.

While the ‘Just Do It’ campaign was taking the urbanised youth of the ghettos by storm, and still on the back foot of middle class criticism, Nike had managed to take a rather niche sports clothing company and transform it into a modern day phenomenon, with a fellowship exceeding those of small religions. The vast majority of Nike owners didn’t in fact use them for sport as touched on earlier, but as a show to the world that they embraced this contemporary fitness culture, and did it in pain free style. The CFAR mini case study also explains how Nike were able to “turn sweaty, pain-ridden, time-consuming exercise in Nike sneakers into something sexy and exciting.”  - (CFAR, 2000, pg.2)

Rory Sutherland, speaking at TED tell the story of Frederick the Great of Prussia, who was keen to get Germans eating potatoes for a number of reasons. What was interesting about this was the way in which he approached getting the population to approve them after an initial rebellion due to their disgusting looks and bland taste. Frederick the Great ‘tried plan B, he tried the marketing approach’ and made it known that the potato was now a royal vegetable and for royal consumption only. This newly found aura around the vegetable instantly sparked arousal amongst peasants and “before long there was a massive underground potato growing operation in Germany, effectively re-branding the potato.”

Nike very much resonates this approach within their marketing campaigns, using celebrities, referred to as royalty in Sutherlands story, to endorse the product/lifestyle which in turn attracts a massive following, a sure fire route to success.

These celebrity endorsements, from sport icons to hip-hop artists led Nike followers to strive to be like them and nothing else, and through buying into the products (that soon stopped being physically advertised due to such familiarity) gave the impression it was achievable. Klein speculates that

“One of the main reasons black urban youth can get out of the ghetto only by rapping or shooting hoops is that Nike and the other multinationals are reinforcing stereotypical images of black youth and simultaneously taking the jobs away.” - (Klein, 2000, p.484)

It is through this mass, dedicated following that Nike has managed to position itself in such a highly influential place within many cultures and social backgrounds. A level of following that one can almost only compare to that of religion. Religion is generally known to anthropomorphize a ‘god’, have a set of beliefs that are strongly pushed forward, through a number of iconic characters to preach these words. Nike can be seen to exercise all these factors, the ‘god’ however, they very cleverly place in the consumer

Nike as a brand and most specifically their ‘Just Do It’ campaign very cleverly place in the consumer as the god in ones’ self, worship yourself through this brand, with us you can be the new god of your own life. Iconised characters, bodied predominantly as sport stars and hip hop artists are the prophets spreading the word of Nike, with people looking up to them participating in sports they love, wearing readily available trainers priced at a ‘mere’ $130.

Bibliography

Quart, A., 2002. Branded. London: Arrow.

Hess, J., and Pasztorek, S., 2010.  Graphic design for Fashion. London: Laurence King.

Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. London: Flamingo.

Olins, W., 2003. On Brand. London: Thames and Hudson.

CFAR Centre for Applied Research, 2000. Nike’s “Just Do It” Advertising Campaign [pdf] Availiable at: <www.cfar.com/Documents/nikecmp.pdf> [Accessed 03 December 2011].

Frisch, A., 2008. The Story of Nike. Mankato, MN: The Creative Company.

MiccoChannel, 2010. Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man – part 1. [video online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDeHP9iXig0> [Accessed 03 December 2011].

Alarcón, M.C., and Derkach, E., 2011. Branding Project on Nike [pdf] Available at: <http://issuu.com/mariacami08/docs/nike_branding_project> [Accessed 22 January 2012].

Hyperreality.

It could be argued that our culture itself is hyperreal in the sense that we are overruled by technological elements infiltrating almost every aspect of our lives, from entertainment, to communication, even through to our most intimate relationships, replacing and substituting reality with technology 

Although decended from a non technologically driven art, graffiti is one aspect of our culture that has become extremely hyperreal due to the introduction of technology and social media. The art of graffiti has always been about representing oneself, however it essentially starts to become about how one would like to be represented, how one would like to be viewed. This element of portraying oneself through use of a pseudonym has been dramatically incresed through a mojaor shift in how it is viewed.

Twenty years ago a piece of graffiti would be painted on a wall, and only people 'using' that wall as part of their scenery would be exposed to it, leaving the painting to sit in the environment and become a new part of people's everyday lives. At this point the artist and painting had a brief moment of connection where they interacted, the painter left a perception of himself behind and left the painting to move on to his next location. From this point on the painting is real, it is a small part of the painter left in a large world.

It is the introduction of photography and the internet which then takes the painting, the brief moment the painter had to represepnt himself through the paint on to the wall, and breaks it down into an infinitely distributable product. Uploading it on websites and posting it on forums allows the painter to continually represent himself and his work for as long as possible, it no longer has a place or story, it is simply a photograph. The painter then continues to paint, but not for the reasons of pure passion and drive. He paints in order to take photographs and distribute his works under a psedonym, over a platform that has no reality with regards to his location, whilst the images are being viewed by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, out of context or reality.

Task 1 - Panopticism

In our modern society, it could be argued that many everyday environments we are exposed to employ panoptic elements, from shop floors to classrooms to the factory floor. There is one aspect of our lives however, that could be seen to panoptically reign over all other examples of its occurrence. Religion plays a part in around 80% of peoples lives globally and this dedication to various perceptions of religion has undoubtedly started to expose and identify the panoptic roles it can play.


Bentham's panopticon places the individual in a secluded cell, a position where "he is seen, but he does not see", in turn creating a "permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power". Christianity, much like other religions takes the idea of an all seeing God and places it not only in stationary places of worship, but extends the ‘seeing’ infinitely, with the individual left constantly unsure as to whether he or she is being watched from above.


Religion has a few blanket rules that tend to apply all-round; Be civil and friendly to one and other, Listen to the words of God and don’t sin. Bentham speaks of “a power situation of which they themselves are the bearers”, which is essentially true of religion, one can choose to follow a religion, and usually do so, sticking to the rules and proving their faith by attending regular services. Nobody would blink and eyelid if the average man didn’t attend every week, although the subject self-regulates him/herself with the thought of someone much greater watching over. Societies have used this idea to maintain order within developing civilisations, “and this invisibility is a guarantee of order”.

Marxism & Design Activism

Marxism & Design Activism

Key Aims:

•To introduce a critical definition of ideology

•To introduce some of the basic principles of Marxist philosophy

•To explain the extent to which the media constitutes us as subjects

•To introduce ‘culture jamming’ and the idea of design activism

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however is to change it. – Karl Marx (1845)

Praxis – a unification of thought and action. A philosophy that’s realised in a political movement.

Marxism is :

            a political manifesto, leading to socialism, communism and the twentieth century conflicts between capital and labour

            a philosophical approach to the social sciences, which focuses on the role of society in determining human behaviour, based on concept of dialectical materialism

What is capitalism?

– The society that we live in (in the west) it a society where;

•Control of the means of production in private hands (few individuals make lots of money, everyone one else works to make them money)

•A market where labour power is bought and sold

•Production of commodities for sale

•Use of money as a means of exchange

•Competition / meritocracy -It’s a competition that makes us compete against each other for grades, money, hierarchy.

Primitive communism – Slave Society – Feudalism – Capitalism – Socialism – Communism

Technology will liberate us - Lecture notes

Technology will liberate us.

(powerpoint copies & notes)

MACHINE AGE - MODERNISM

Technological conditions can affect the collective consciousness

Technology trigger important changes in cultural development

Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’ (1936) significantly evaluates the role of technology through photography as an instrument of change. 

Walter Benjamin believed reproducing or copying work can be seen as a work in its own right, not just merely a copy of the last.

Walter Benjamin and mechanical reproduction

The age of Technology and art

Parallel and specific to new developments; a duality expressing the zeitgeist (there here and now)

Dialectical due to the copy, reproductive nature and the role of the original – The whole issue that is called dialectical is due to the copy, the reproductive and the original. Because of photography and technology, there becomes a defined idea of ‘original’. Before technology there was no need to differentiate between original its uniqeness and what Benjamin labes as its aura. There is a uniqueness and quality (aura) to the original that will only be found in the original, not the copies and reproduction.  - The aura and uniqueness of art

The camera eye is widely written about as it is used to crerate multiple viewing points, through one look of the camera eye.

DZIGA VERTOV – man with the movie camera  - The variable gaze of the camera eye. Benjamin claims a new consciousness as a result. i.e represented idealism of faith and progress through technological progress. The camera eye represents technological progress.

‘We must expect great innovations to transform the entire techniques of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself  and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in the our very notion of art’  Paul Valery (1871 – 1945)

Early experimental techniques ‘photogram’ started to play around and push the limits of what technology had to offer in the art and design environment.

Benjamin and two Parallels Freud and Marx - Freud explored the instinctual subconscious side of human behaviour 2. marxist economic though gave new political models of thinking over new criteria for value of the work of art. (technology changes the value of a piece of work or design)

Photography had overturned the judgment seat of art – a fact which the discourse of modernism found hard to repress  (Lovejoy p36)

Kineticism – the idea of capturing movement, many art forms and movements were obsessed with capturing this form.

Etienne-Jules Marey. French photographer. His photographic research was primarily a tool for his work on human and animal movement. A doctor and physiologist, Marey invented, in 1888, a method of producing a series of successive images of a moving body on the same negative in order to be able to study its exact position in space at determined moments, which he called ‘chronophotographie’. He took out numerous patents and made many inventions in the field of photography, all of them concerned with his interest in capturing instants of movement. In 1882 he invented the electric photographic gun using 35 mm film, the film itself being 20 m long; this photographic gun was capable of producing 12 images per second on a turning plate, at 1/720 of a second. He began to use transparent film rather than sensitized paper in 1890 and patented a camera using roll film, working also on a film projector in 1893. He also did research into stereoscopic images. Marey’s chronophotographic studies of moving subjects were made against a black background for added precision and clarity. These studies cover human locomotion—walking, running and jumping (e.g. Successive Phases of Movement of a Running Man, 1882; see Berger and Levrault, cat. no. 95); the movement of animals—dogs, horses, cats, lizards, etc.; and the flight of birds—pelicans, herons, ducks etc. He also photographed the trajectories of objects—stones, sticks and balls—as well as liquid movement and the functioning of the heart. He had exhibitions in Paris in 1889, 1892 and 1894, and in Florence in 1887.

These are the start of how we represent time duration and space.

Dematerialization, once we start to look at the recorded image, it moves away from form and object and moves into the realm of just image. Once this is reached you can copy, replicate and the help of technology, edit and manipulate it. Technology and photographs have put us in a state where we no longer have to deal with the ‘object’

Richard Hamilton Dada, collage and montage (1922)images  or objects are ordered and coded and styled according to conventions which develop out of the practice of each medium with it s tools and processes Pg $ Lovejoy many different contexts change meaning. Dada and surrealist movements and the dematerilaization of art

Karl Marx & Technology.

He is associated with the term technological determinism and how technology determines economical production factors and affects social conditions.

The main dialectical issues…

Technology drives history

Technology and the division of labour – a labourer and someone making will not necessarily see there work from beginning to end, separates us from creativity

Materialist view of history –

Technology and Capitalism and production, because of the division of labour in the industry.

Social Alienation of people form aspects of their human nature as a result of capitalism – workers do not own their means of making work, they sell their working labour – competition cancels out cooperation. Alienated form other human beings and from distinctive creativity and community shared by us.

ELECTRONIC AGE – POSTMODERNISM

Postmodern, post machine.

Many electronic works were still made with the modern aesthetic

Emergence of information and conceptual based works

The computer a natural metaphor -

A spirit of openness to industrial techniques – moves away from the modernist aesthetic and becomes tied up with consumerism and technology

Collaborations between art and science – seeps across boundaries, broken distinct boundaries between art and other contexts

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

1.    When art is reproduced, it changes how society looks at and experiences it

Opposed to the mona lisa being hung on a wall in le louvre, it can be hung on a wall in ones home, the same way

2 -  the greater decrease in the social significance of an art form (when art forms start to loose purpose and importance in society, becomes more accessible to the public? In turn allowing the art forms to be criticised and enjoyed in a more person a way, opposed to being told how to look at it.

The conventional is enjoyed because people tell us we should enjoy it whereas the new can be critised

The moment these responses become manifest they control each other – is this saying that it gets to a point

Art is linked to an elitist group of peopl

XII. Pleasure becomes fused with expert appraisal, in the relation of the masses with art. Simultaneous mass reception of painting is unthinkable, and does not naturally confront masses directly.

Art is again associated to an elite, individual activity, whilts it is essential that culture is public, and only in its publicity and public value, it can be culture. However, it is clear that a reaction of the masses cannot replace an expert opinion, when better informed, based on a broader interpretation, a finer analysis of distinguishing characteristics, etcetera. The larger public should take time to listen to experts, but should by no means be excused from an attempt to shape an informed opinion. Any suggestion to that effect is tantamount to cultural suicide (since culture is a general sign of the times).

Panopticism - Lecture notes

Panopticism.

Institutions and Institutional power.

We are produced by the institutions and society we are immersed in.

Micheal Foucault – radical French philosipher – Died of Aids, campaigned for Gay rights etc.

Two works that are mainly cited by Foucault

-Madness & civilisation – Surveys the rise of the asylum and psychiatry and doctors

Discipline & punish: The birth of the prison. – surveys the rise of the prison and moreover the modern prison

Madness and civilisation:

Pre 1600’s, the ‘madness’ were accept into society, left to wander from town to town peacefully, almost endorsed.

Those who weren’t useful for society in the late 1600’s were dismissed and thrown into houses of correction (for the insane, criminal, general poor, single mothers – anyone who couldn’t be put to work) People were put to work in these house at the threat of their peril.

After a while these houses were seen as a grave error, these houses were corrupting people more, insane people turning the sane in.

The birth of the asylum - 1700, there became a division between the sane and insane, people started to become qualified to judge

The asylum gave residents control (although treated like children) to an extent, trained to receive good things for doing good practice.

At this point Fouco realised it was more effective to control people in a mental way rather than pure physical.

This realisation emerged knowledge – biology, psychiatry, medicine, etc. Legitimise the practice of hospitals, doctors, psychiatrists. – Started to internalise our

Criminals, deviants, people who society judged as abnormal were punished usually in a spectular way, humiliated in public areas, throwing food etc. The point of this humiliation was an effort to show people what would happen if they were to not conform within society.

DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY AND DISCIPLINIARTY POWER

There was a shift from physical punishment to mental punishement, Foucault says that discipline is a technology, a technique. Controling our thoughts and behaviours rather than just killing those who didn’t comply.

Panopticon (building) – designed in 1791 by Jeremy Bentham, the building is seen as a metaphor for social control by Foucault (1970)

Bentham thought it could have a multitude of functions from schools, hospitals, asylum but mainly thought about it as a prison. Each of the divides are seen as cells each with a window for prisonors, 1 per room.

A central tower ran through the middle of the building. The panoptican was special for Foucault as each prisonor in any cell can see the central tower but can never see each other, however they also never knew when they were being watched as the tower was never lit. This achieved a strange effect as a result of not knowing when you’re being watched, prisinors would tend to always behave because of the constant scrutiny – The panopticon internalises in the individual the conscious state that he is ALWAYS being watched. Once this idea of constantly being watched sunk in, people wouldn’t try and break out, started controlling themselves as they were constantly worried of being caught out.

Builds an internal disciplinary, perfect for control on a purely psychological level.

These institutions were also used as Asylums, almost turning into labs comparing and contrasting prisonors and patients like lab rats.

•Allows scrutiny

•Allows supervisor to experiment on subjects

•Aims to make them productive

-reforms prisoners

-Helps treat patients

-Helps instruct schoolchildren

-Helps confine, but also study the insane

-Helps supervise workers.

The panopticon is a model of how modern society organises its knowledge, its power, its survailence of bodies and its training of bodies (getting people to train themselves).

This idea of panopticism feeds into contemporary lives once you start to look into the effects and techniques used to achieve social control.

-Open plan offices are panoptic as there is always risk of being seen by the boss – this achieves a high level of work, even by the boss just being thought about being present.

Panopticism is you acting in a way that you think you ‘should’ act because of the social surrounings or at a threat of being caught out. This in turn prompts us to act as more productive and well behaved individuals.

Many different panoptic techniques in operation in our world, clasrooms, bars, CCTV, lecture theatres.

RELATION SHIP PBETWEEN POWER, KNOWLEDGE AND THE BODY.

Panoptisism has a direct relationship between physical and mental control.  The mental control stems into how we physically control ourselves.

Disciplinary Society produces what Foucault calls – docile (wont rebel) bodies (obedient bodies)

•Self moitoring

•Self correcting

•Obendient bodies

Disciplinary Techniques –

People going to the gym, keeping a mental track on how they treat their bodies, staying healthy. Through seeing adverts and ‘the perfect body’ plastered about, controls how people react physically through psychological ideas.

Faucault and Power

•His defenition is NOT a top-down model as it is with Marxism.

•Power is not a thing or capacity people have, it is a REALATION between different individuals and groups, and only exhists when it is being exercised.

•The exercise of power relies on there being the capacity for power to be resisted.

•WHERE THERE IS POWER THERE IS ALWAYS RESISTANCE.

KEY points to leave with

•Micheal Foucault

•Panopticism as a form of discipline

•Techniques of the body

•Docile bodies

Task - Essay Proposal

Nike - 'Just Do it' - Slogan or Religion

I want to study the 'Just do it' advertising campaign that took over the sportswear fashion industries in the early 90's. I have found a number of sources that start to look at how companies can come around to attaining a such high badge value, through mass following and ingenious advertising.

• Look at how nike have managed to gain such a large following through use of popular icons.

• Compare Nike's use of assigning badge value to their products in order to create a buzz about them, much like the story from Rory Sutherland's video

• I want to try and put the modern day following of nike in the same light as that of many religious followings around the world.

•How teenagers, particularly in the late 80's early 90's started to substitue human relationships, and the way these relationships were percieved through Nike's products.

•




Naomi Klein - No Logo

Rory Sutherland - Life lessons from an Ad man

Olly Wallins - On Brand

CFAR - Nike's 'just do it' advertising campaign

Branded - Alissa Quart