Nike and Utah: Just Do It
It’s one of the most ubiquitous taglines in advertising. W hen I say it… you’ll instantly know which company they go with. Ready?
Just Do It.
This is the first commercial to use those three words… back in 1988. They never said the words in the commercial - in fact they’re never spoken. At the very end of commercials… they just appear … and this is the guy who dreamed them up.
Dan Wyden had a little advertising agency …that worked with this upstart shoe company… from Oregon. But the three words came in a twisted way… from Draper Utah. Where in 1977.. convicted killer Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad Like most Americans … Dan Wyden was fascinated by Gilmore’s last words.
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Push through… Push Through… 11 years later… Wyden borrowed Gary Gilmore’s farewell to the world … for Nike.
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Just Do It. Words rarely spoken aloud… spawned at the state prison in Draper. … which gone. As is Dan Wyden… but his nike tagline is known round the world.
And for an advertising guy… there’s no better epitaph.
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