Nike's latest campaign, from Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, might be one of the brand's most inclusive yet. Featuring a variety of athletes from Chris Mosier, the first transgender athlete to make a U.S. men's national team, to Sister Madonna Buder, aka the "Iron Nun," the brand has released several films showcasing athleticism. Nike's chief marketing officer, Greg Hoffman, spoke with Adweek and provided a bit of context about the new work. 

Adweek: Tell us about the new "Unlimited" campaign. What is Nike looking to accomplish?
Greg Hoffman: This creative process started over a year ago. We want to take athletes of all types, whether it's elite athletes or everyday athletes, regardless of skill level or age group, and help them reach their full potential. One of the insights that we drilled into is that there are a lot of perceived limits for athletes, and so we wanted to get to this place where athletes achieved an 'unlimited' mindset. What that means is that rather than focusing on all the limits you do have, you get to that place where you realize there are no limits. The very best athletes that you see, certainly the ones you see competing at the Olympics games today, really represent that. 

Is that why you have been rolling this out around the Olympics? 
Yeah, well there's a couple things: One is that we're always trying to close the distance between elite athletes and everyday athletes, and this is the perfect time for consumers of all types to draw incredible inspiration from, whether you see the incredible feats by the athletes during the Olympics.

At the same time, we provide as part of the of the "Unlimited" campaign, the same product innovations, also using the same inspirational stories of these athletes and provide that to consumers and not only have them witness some of the best performances that you see during the Olympics, but at the same time, achieve their best moments as athletes as well.

The other piece, why the "Unlimited" campaign has so many different dimensions—and there's great diversity in the stories we are telling—is to connect athletes and consumers all around the world and connect on a personal level with them. What makes the Olympics great is that you feel like you're part of something bigger, and with the "Unlimited" campaign, it's creating a community around that idea. I think that's the power within the community that allows you and motivates you to achieve your best as an athlete.

How did you decide who you were going to feature within the campaign?
There's a variety of different athletes and personalities within these films, and we really wanted to choose individuals where we were inspired by their journey and their story. And we wanted to share that with the world. Whether it's Chris Mosier's spot, or the "Unlimited Together" spot or "Unlimited You," which is an amazing array of [pro] athletes as well as everyday athletes, and of course "Unlimited Future," featuring all the babies and this incredible future they have—the spirit of that spot is that you can't decide where you start, but you will be able to determine where you go. We really want to make sure we were representing all countries and all sports and that consumers can see themselves within the story. 

It also seems like a big deal for a brand like Nike to have that kind of representation. 
Yes, and Chris Mosier was very involved with the spot. A lot of the words and the way it was shot and the authenticity of it, that was very much a partnership with him telling that story. It's powerful, and it does speak to that idea of that unifying power of sport. ... As a brand representing diversity and inclusion, it is extremely important to us. 

Is there also an effort to subvert expectations? That's what the narrator, actor Oscar Isaac, seems to represent. 
Yeah, that's the spirit that's the voice of the campaign, if you will. It kind of follows this journey where at first, the narrator is just simply trying to motivate and inspire these athletes. Then he becomes quite satisfied when he feels they reach the potential that he's determined. And then, when they begin to break through those barriers, through those limitations, that's where he starts to be overwhelmed. We love that kind of back and forth between the athletes and him. 

Really, the narrator is in some ways that voice that all athletes have at certain periods of time where there's someone telling them they've gone far enough or they've jumped high enough and that they've achieved their best and that they should be satisfied. What we're saying as a brand is that you should strive to overcome those limitations and just push through them and you'll ultimately reach your full potential as an athlete. Everything we do starts with an insight. We try to get to a sharp point in terms of what are athletes feeling and how can we help. Ultimately, through film, we thought that was a powerful way to connect with athletes around the world. 

How did you get Chance the Rapper to create a song for Nike? 
We've always loved his lyrics and his music, and it seemed like a very natural fit in terms of his voice and the "Unlimited" campaign. There's a lot of room and dimensions in the world of "Unlimited," and that's why on the one hand, you have the narrator cheering on all these athletes in some of the other films, and then you also have room and opportunity to talk about the power of sport to unify through the USAB teams. And that's where Chance lends his voice. He's got incredible talent and passion, and he's been resonating with consumers around the world. 

Is there anything else we should know? 
Statistically, it is resonating—over 275 million digital views around the world when you look at these films altogether across multiple platforms. Ultimately, that's just the film side. This campaign is more than that. It's connected to our retail destinations throughout the world, and we're doing multiple event activations in Rio, Shanghai, London and New York as a way to personally connect with consumers. The other piece gets back to the products and services that are also connected to "Unlimited," the power of Nike Plus to help all consumers be the best athlete they can be and providing them with the best that they can get in innovation.

The spirit of the campaign will continue on past this moment we are in today. That doesn't necessarily mean more films. It means that we're going to continue to be with athletes as they continue to train in a variety of ways on a variety of levels. 

To determine the most effective TV spots of the Olympics, Google tracked the top 12 brands with ads that aired during NBC's broadcasts by length and frequency, including Coca-Cola, Nike and BMW.

Collectively, the ads generated 3.5 billion impressions. The company's data includes online surveys as well as traffic stats about Google searches.

Per Google's findings, 34.4 percent of consumers remembered seeing Nike's "Unlimited" campaign, which champions the stories of everyday athletes like Chris Mosier, Sister Madonna Buder and Kyle Maynard—the first quadruple amputee to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

Almost 33 percent of consumers remembered Coca-Cola's "That's Gold" ad, and 21.3 percent of people recalled a McDonald's ad.

Procter & Gamble's "Small Can Be Powerful" spot for Tide featuring American gymnast Simone Biles also performed well—roughly 22 percent of people remembered seeing the ad, and it had a 50 percent product-recall rate. After seeing the ad, 28 percent of consumers said that they were more likely to look for more information on the product or even buy it. Another 25 percent of respondents said that they felt "more positive" about Tide after seeing the ad.

To determine which brands viewers searched for the most, Google crunched a brand's share of searches by its share of impressions to create a stat called response index. BMW's Olympic version of "Defy Gravity" had a score of 3.2, making it the most-searched brand. Coke and McDonald's were also highly searched brands, with scores of 2.0 and 1.6, respectively.

Google also dug into the differences between Olympic sponsors and non-sponsors. For official sponsors, purchase intent increased 25 percentage points between someone who saw an ad and those who did not. And for non-official sponsors, purchase intent between a control and exposed group jumped 32 percentage points.

For both official and non-official sponsors, Olympic ads heavily boosted sentiment for the brand. When asked, "Did the ad change how you feel about the brand," non-sponsors saw a jump of 27 percentage points for consumers who saw their ad. Ads for official sponsors, meanwhile, increased positive sentiment by 24 percentage points.

As more of Google's searches move to mobile, smartphone-generated queries particularly spiked during this year's games. Eighty-three percent of Google searches about Olympics ads came from smartphones, with another 10 percent coming from tablets and desktops making up the remaining 7 percent.

Nike is out with its latest ad from Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai, and it's not just a celebration of sports. It's a celebration of freedom.

A lyrical and spontaneous picture of athleticism takes center stage in the remarkable 90-second spot, titled "The Next Wave," as the camera's focus flows through city streets from one sport to another. A young soccer player juggles a ball as he walks out of school and down the sidewalk. A group of teenage girls dribble basketballs as they swagger past, and cyclists, skateboarders and ultimate frisbee players weave around them.

The pace continues to pick up as an increasingly long continuous shot gives way to include some Chinese celebrities—hurdler Liu Xiang zips by, and tennis player LiNa blasts away with her racket, before the frame swings up to the rooftops, where parkour traceurs are doing backflips off walls and swinging by the legs from scaffolding in their usual fashion.

As the film progresses, roller hockey players, BMX bikers, golfers and baseball players also all get their due, until eventually, the full range of everyday Nike endorsers (plus an exceptional older gentleman, senior marathon runner Mr. Sun) are thronging the scene—namely, the promenade along the Haihe river in Tianjin, with the Dagu bridge gracing the background. 

All the while, the voiceover chips away at conventional rules of inspiration, as it strives to hook a new generation of athletes. "You don't have to do it for the glory. You don't have to do it to be famous. You don't have to do it for the boys." There isn't, it turns out, a right way to do any of it at all. All you need—that's right, you guessed it, kids—is to "Just Do It."

The sheer riveting energy and physicality of the ad (it was directed by Stink's Martin Krejci) make it a welcome addition to the body of work built around that classic tagline. It also joins a recent string of spots from the sportswear marketer and W+K in the broader Asia region that feature a common rebellious streak.

In July, there was "Da Da Ding," the pumping anthem from the agency's Delhi office, meant to update India's image of women's sports. Earlier this month, Nike Japan and W+K Tokyo put out "Minohodoshirazu," another ambitious medley titled with a phrase translating roughly to "Don't Know Your Place." Together, they speak to why the "Just Do It" line, some 28 years after its inception, is still so powerful. No matter where you are in the world, and whatever personal demons or cultural traditions or global economic forces are keeping you down, all really need to throw off that yoke are three simple, flexible, intimate words.

Because, as it turns out, Nike isn't selling shoes at all. It's selling motivation.

"We shot this film in a single-take style, and it took a lot of long shots with very complicated choreography to pull it off," says Shaun Sundholm, creative director at W+K Shanghai. "That meant we had everyday athletes playing side by side with famous athletes, balls flying everywhere, people crashing into each other. It was near chaos at times. But in the end, we combined all of their energy into one infectious massive wave of sport."

Adds Dino Xu, business director at W+K Shanghai: "Growing up in China, I was surrounded by people who simply used the English words 'Just Do It' as a punch line without knowing what it really means. It's great that in this campaign, the provocative voiceover lines help to define what it is, by saying what it isn't."

The campaign will also include short-film content, billboards, on-the-ground activations, and some "digital engagement surprises," the agency says. 

CREDITS
Client: Nike China
Campaign Name: 2016 Nike JDI campaign
Main Anthem: "The Next Wave"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai
Executive Creative Director: Yang Yeo
Creative Director: Terence Leong, Azsa West, Shaun Sundholm
Art Directors: Christian Laniosz, Marc Garreta
Copywriters: TJ Walthall, Liu Wei, Max Pilwat
Director of Integrated Production: Angie Wong
Head of Content: Bernice Wong
Producer: Fang Yuan
Art Producer: Xuan Ong
Planning Director: Paula Bloodworth
Senior Planner: Leon Lin
Digital Strategist: Bill Tang
Business Director: Dino Xu
Associate Account Director: Jim Zhou
Sr. Account Executive: Shawn Kai
Project Manager: Nicole Bee
Business Affairs: Jessica Deng, Kathy Zhan
Senior Designer: Patrick Rockwell
Designers: Wendy Yu, Deer CL
Production Manager: Vic Zhang
Digital Imaging Artist: Changqing Lee
FA Artist: Bin Liu
Campaign Summary Sheet

Production Company: Stink Films Shanghai
Director: Martin Krejci
Director's Producer: Justine Madero
1st Assistant Director: James Skotchdopole
1st Assistant Director (Local): Hank Zeng
Director of Photography: Dimitri Karakatsanis
CAM A Operator / Gimbal Ninja: Florian Hatwagner
Executive Producer: Desmond Loh
Executive Producer: Brenda Tham
Producer: Juliana Chung
Production Manager: Charles Renard
Production Manager: Evie Yeo
Beijing Line Producer: Xiao Yu
Production Assistant: Haze Zhu
Celebrity Handler/Fixer: Emma Sun
CAM A Focus Puller/1st AC: Albert Wang
Drone operator: Zhang Teng Sen
Q Take: Marcus Peh
Taipei Production Support: Episode Films
Hong Kong Production Support: Spur Link
Beijing & Hong Kong Art Director: Yao Jun
Taiwan Art Director: Daymon Wu
Wardrobe Stylist: Julian Mei

Postproduction: Lost Planet Editorial, L.A.
Editorials: Hank Corwin, Federico Brusilovsky
Post Executive Producer: Gary Ward
Post Producer: Aimee Crook
Assistant Editor: Jason Dopko
VFX Artist/Supervisor: Glenn Teel

Color: The Mill, London
Colorist: Seamus O'Kane
Producer: Dan Kreeger
Campaign Summary Sheet

Music: Barking Owl, L.A.
Composer: Seth Olinsky

Sound Design (L.A.):
Sound Designer: Eugene Gearty
Mixing (L.A.):
Mixer: Chris Jenkins

Audio VO Production: TZ Studio, Shanghai
Producer: Joyce Chen
Engineer: Hu Yuan

At a press conference at Wimbledon in July, a reporter asked Serena Williams how she felt about going down in the history books as "one of the greatest female athletes of all time." She responded simply, "I prefer the words 'one of the greatest athletes of all time.' "

With just a few words, the winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles was able to combat the subtle sexism that permeates how female athletes are treated by the media.

Now, just two months later, Nike uses that moment as inspiration for its latest 60-second spot, a celebration of all that makes Williams great, timed to the U.S. Open. 



The spot, part of Nike's "Unlimited" series from Wieden + Kennedy, goes a step further in its assessment of Williams, deeming her the "greatest athlete ever" (after striking the word female from its own onscreen copy). 

The ad uses the just a few of those on-screen words to condense Williams' many accomplishments into an easily digestible narrative (even if it's cryptic at first). The creative is stripped down, which works, though it might have benefited from more visuals matching the captions. Film is a visual medium after all. 

Nike provided this a reference key for the on-screen text: 

• Compton—Serena Williams swung her first racket at the age of 3 in Compton, Calif., soon after her family moved from Michigan.
• Sister, Outsider—Along with her sister, Williams proved that precocious talent always trumps preconceptions.
• Pro—Williams turned pro in 1995, when she was 14.
• #304—Two years later, with a ranking of 304, she beat two top 10 opponents and became the lowest-ranked player in history to achieve this feat.
• Winner—In 1999, she claimed her first slam and rose to No. 4.
• Top 10—The following two years, for the first time, she ranked in top 10.
• Paris, London, New York—In 2002, Williams took Paris, London and New York—plus the No. 1 ranking.
• Melbourne—A 2003 victory in Melbourne solidified her first "Serena Slam."
• Injured—Injury briefly derailed William's game but never her drive. She dropped to No. 139 in 2006, struggled with confidence and critics labeled her obsolete.
• Struggling—Williams responded by winning Melbourne in 2007, as an unseeded player, completing the year among the sport's top 10.
• No. 169—After another bout of injury, she declined to 169, but quickly battled back and resumed her ascent.
• Done, comeback, focused—In 2013, she became the oldest player ever to earn the rank of No. 1.
• No. 1—Williams held the top spot through 2014—the second woman to retain it for a full year—and took her sixth title in New York.
• Legend—Today, she is revered as the greatest and her influence transcends the game of tennis.

There's also a cool out-of-home component to the campaign.

These Serena Williams Nike ads going up around NYC are pretty, pretty cool pic.twitter.com/DXk60zaED7

— Jordan Zirm (@clevezirm) August 31, 2016

The company also gathered a variety of athletes, as well as comedian Kevin Hart, to send a message of support to Williams as she competes at the U.S. Open (see below). The messages are clearly sincere and heartfelt, which makes the video—it's an ad, after all, so they're all prominently wearing Nike gear—work better on an emotional level. 

In early August, Nike aired a 30-second spot during NBC's prime-time coverage of the Olympics featuring triathlete Chris Mosier, the first transgender athlete to make a U.S. men's national team. That an esteemed brand like Nike decided to showcase Mosier's story of athleticism and courage while millions worldwide watched had both news outlets and marketers take note. Less than a week later, Clairol announced that Tracey "Africa" Norman, a trans model that had worked for the Procter & Gamble hair color brand in the early '70s, would grace its Nice 'n Easy ads again.

Clairol and Nike aren't alone. Marketers like H&M, Thinx, YouTube, even Bud Light, have either featured trans stories or trans-inclusive messaging in recent campaigns, reflecting the cultural conversation of the moment, according to industry analysts.

"The topic has become more mainstream, everywhere you look since Caitlyn Jenner [came out], the success of Transparent, Laverne Cox and Orange Is the New Black," said Chris Edwards, copywriter and author of the forthcoming memoir, Balls: It Takes Some to Get Some, about his transition. "And with these laws about bathrooms … it's become a topic of conversation in this country, and it is bringing transgender rights to the forefront."

        

        Caitlyn Jenner modeled for H&M this spring. H&M

According to an investigation of state and federal data released by research group the Williams Institute in June, the number of trans-identifying adults in the United States has doubled in the last decade, making up 0.6 percent of the population or 1.4 million adults. It's unclear if that's because the number of trans Americans is growing or if that's due to, as the study notes, "a perceived increase in visibility and social acceptance of transgender people, [which] may increase the number of individuals willing to identify as transgender on a government-administered survey."

"No doubt there has been an upsurge in trans acceptance in society that's filtered through to advertising," said Beth Avellini, global group creative director for Grey New York, the creative shop behind Clairol's new trans-inclusive work. "Advertising reflects society as a whole, and there's been a slow acceptance that's been happening in society."

While cultural acceptance has grown, so has buying power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. A new estimate from Witeck Communications said LGBT buying power is a hefty $917 billion, up 3.6 percent over last year. "There isn't much downside [to featuring trans stories in ads], unless you're a hard-core Bible belt brand," said Thomas Ordahl, chief strategy officer for brand consulting firm Landor Associates. "The biggest risk is being disingenuous. If it doesn't seem like a genuine or authentic message for your brand, that's a bigger risk than alienating an audience."

        

        Nike shared Chris Mosier's story during prime-time Olympic coverage. Nike

Authenticity, in fact, was key for Clairol, according to Grey's Avellini. The agency had tracked down Norman after reading her story in New York magazine's fashion vertical The Cut. Norman once had a successful modeling career—she even appeared on Clairol's Born Beautiful hair color boxes for six years—until she was outed on a magazine fashion shoot.

Fast-forward to more accepting times and greater opportunities. Clairol's Nice 'n Easy's "Color as Real as You Are" campaign featuring Norman will be in print and on TV in early 2017. "Tracey had already been part of the brand," Avellini insisted. "We weren't making an inauthentic statement."

Ads like Clairol's and Nike's that tell personal stories show trans people that they aren't alone, said Edwards. But as "terminology is evolving, it is important for advertisers to do their research and work with advisors to make sure copy and tone resonate with the intended audience," he noted. That's exactly what Nike's creative agency Wieden + Kennedy did, according to Nike chief marketing officer Greg Hoffman.

But industry analysts believe it won't be long before that trans inclusivity in ads isn't worth a news story. "I think we're going to get to a place where it's normalized pretty quickly," said Ordahl. "It becomes kind of a nonstory after a while."

This story first appeared in the September 5, 2016 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Apple's Keynote event today at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco heralded in the newest editions of the iPhone, Apple Watch and wireless earbuds (called AirPods) and a swatch of software additions and tweaks.

But while Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives touted their wares and wearables, a number of stars from other brands also took to the stage to mark partnerships for various products. It seemed to be a noticeable shift, as Apple is now sharing with non-Apple companies more than in years past.

Here are some of the brands that announced partnerships with Apple's latest fleet:

Nike

To commemorate the first Apple Watch to be untethered from an iPhone, Apple is bringing a whole line of Nike-branded watch bands specifically geared at the Nike+ running crowd. To talk about runner-focused updates for the Apple Watch 2's integration with Nike+ Run Club app, Apple invited Nike Brand President Trevor Edwards to talk about what runners can expect.

"Apple and Nike share a passion to make life easier and more fun, and we look forward to continuing this amazing journey together," Edwards said.

Nintendo

Apple's App Store has already surpassed 140 billion downloads, but that number is bound to go even higher now that Super Mario is making his debut.

It's the first time Super Mario has been available for iOS. (As The New York Times notes, the company has long kept its games away from non-Nintendo devices.) For the announcement, Apple surprised the audience by bringing the game's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, on stage to talk about it and show off the demo of Super Mario Run. The game, which is similar to the original in many ways, will be available by the 2016 holiday season for an undisclosed price.

Nintendo's stock jumped as much as 27 percent after officials announced Super Mario would be coming to the Apple App store.       

Hermès

Nike isn't the only non-Apple brand that's coming together with the Apple Watch. Hermès, the Parisian luxury designer, is expanding its existing collaboration with Apple with a new series of single- and double-tour bands in a variety of colors and designs. 

Hermès is expanding its partnership with Apple with new bands. Apple

Pokemon Go

It was bound to happen. Just months since the augmented reality break-out game of the year inspired gamers around the world to go outside in search of digital pocket monsters, Apple announced it plans to integrate the game into the next version of the Apple Watch.

The watch version of the app has already been downloaded 500 million times, leading to users walking more than 4.6 billion kilometers. Soon, the watch version will help guide trainers to the nearest eggs, while keeping score of points and other collectibles and tracking fitness stats from the journey.

Pokemon Go will be integrated into the latest Apple Watch.  Apple

The Nike Mag self-lacing sneakers from Back to the Future II are finally a reality—27 years after the movie, five years after Nike built a Mag prototype, and seven months after it announced a different self-lacing shoe altogether.

The sneaker maker announced the release of the 2016 Nike Mag on Tuesday morning. It will be made available in an extremely limited edition: Only 89 pairs will be made (the significance of the number wasn't made clear, though Back to the Future II came out in 1989), and they will be handed out in an online raffle—tickets for which cost $10 and will benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the Back to the Future actor's organization that is looking to find a cure for Parkinson's disease.

The online draw begins today and runs through next Tuesday. Winners will be notified on Oct. 17. There is no limit to the number of tickets you can buy, and 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the MJFF.

Mark Parker, chairman, president and CEO of Nike, talks about the Mag here:



"Though it initially shared only a few seconds of screen time with Michael, the idea behind the Nike Mag unlocked something much bigger at Nike," Parker said in a statement. "It sent us down an uncharted path of innovation, but it also opened our eyes to our ability to fight some of the world's biggest challenges. We feel privileged for the opportunity to raise even more awareness for the fight against Parkinson's."

Nike held a similar fundraiser in 2011 for the MJFF involving a prototype of the Mag. A version of the shoe was built then and auctioned, raising nearly $10 million in 10 days.

Five years later, adaptive footwear is more reality than fantasy. This past spring, Nike introduced the HyperAdapt 1.0, a performance shoe that automatically laces and fits to the unique shape of your foot.

The HyperAdapt is nice, but it's not the Mag. Back to the Future fans will be glad to see the Mag is now a real sneaker, too—it uses technologies developed for the HyperAdapt and applies them to the original Mag design, creating what Nike calls "an individually responsive system, called Adaptive Fit, that senses the wearer and tightens or loosens accordingly."

Specs
Who Founder Richard Yelland (l.) and associate producer Giovanne Helou
What Creative agency and production firm
Where Santa Monica, Calif.

Since 2000, Curtis Birch has focused on storytelling and has most recently become known for weaving brands' messages into compelling documentary shorts. It's why the Santa Monica, Calif.-based creative shop will give a talk at Nike's West Coast headquarters later this month as part of the behemoth sports apparel company's Wise Words speaker series. "What we're speaking to Nike about, and what we did on our project with them [12 Miles North], was figure out how to make an emotional connection with a consumer," said Richard Yelland, founder and director of Curtis Birch. Through its work for clients like Hurley, Allergan and Nissan, the shop has learned that documentary day-in-the-life stories resonate with consumers. Recently, Curtis Birch, which has five full-time employees and ramps up to between 25 and 50 people as needed, created documentary shorts for Outside TV featuring celebs like surfing legend Rob Machado and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. Currently, the shop is hard at work on a passion project of its own: a feature documentary about the band Sublime called The Long Way Back.

This story first appeared in the October 10, 2016 issue of Adweek magazine.
Click here to subscribe.

Rational Interaction, a digital agency based in Seattle, last month released a study that found that 67 percent of Twitter's 310 million daily users utilize the platform for customer service. At the same time, it discovered that nearly 93 percent of brands are not responding sufficiently to such queries. 

We asked Rational Interaction to dig a little deeper for key, brand-specific revelations. Here are a few interesting takeaways from its seven-day study from late summer. 

Apple, AT&T, Adidas and Sephora lag
During the time that Rational Interaction evaluated, @AppleSupport received almost four-and-a-half times as many service requests than the average brand in the study. Apple responded to only 58 percent of the support requests. That's a lot of queries left on the table.

And other global brands—namely AT&T, Adidas and Sephora—lack localized Twitter accounts. Typically, those brand only respond to about 4 percent of customer service requests worldwide on Twitter, Rational Interaction said. 

Nike is on it—big time
Conversely, The Swoosh responded to 96 percent of all customer service inquiries. Today is actually a good example of Nike's attentiveness, as the brand's new Nike Mags sneakers are causing a lot of curiosity on Twitter. Its social team appears up for the challenge. 

@Matthew_N13 Stand by. Winners will be notified soon.

— Nike (@Nike) October 17, 2016

Other intriguing stats
Lastly, below are a few data points that Rational Interaction also rolled out.

• In the healthcare sector, 80 percent of brands fail to provide any customer care via social.
• Even technology brands fall short, with 20 percent ignoring social media customer care. 
• Retailers are better at this, as 60 percent provide customer care from their main brand account.

The Cleveland Cavaliers opened the 2016 NBA season with a victory over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. 

LeBron James scored a triple double for the league's defending champions, but he was more focused on the underdogs in Nike's latest campaign from Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore., which debuted the same night. 

The Cavs came from behind to win the championship last year. And while James has been a household name for some time, his narration in this campaign celebrates those players who followed the same unlikely path. These are the aspiring stars who weren't "supposed" to escape their neighborhoods, beat the odds and go pro, no matter how many coaches told them they had potential. 

They all happen to be wearing James' number 23.



James' cameo at the end serves as both the conclusion of the narrative and a reminder that pro hoops will be just as unpredictably thrilling this year as it was last year. 

He's not the only NBA star who came "out of nowhere." In addition to the anthem spot, the campaign includes out-of-home executions celebrating the individual styles of other players who were never supposed to be big, like Kevin Durant, Paul George and the 5-foot-9 dynamo Isaiah Thomas. These OOH pieces will appear as posters and larger-than-life projections in each player's market. (Check out some of executions below.) 

The "Come Out of Nowhere" campaign will run through the first two weeks of the season.

CREDITS

Client: Nike
Title: "Come Out of Nowhere"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Global Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte, Ryan O'Rourke
Interactive Director: Dan Viens
Copywriter: Jordan Dinwiddie
Art Directors: Jacob Weinstein, Emma Barnett
Integrated Production Director: Matt Hunnicutt
Senior Integrated Producer: Molly Tait Tanen
Agency Production Assistant: Emily Knight
Digital Producer: Keith Rice
Art Production: Amy Berriochoa, Krystle Mortimore
Project Management: Emily Norman 
Studio Design Manager: Simone Takasaki
Studio Designer: Edgar Morales
Retoucher: Greg Radich, Frazer Goodbody
Motion Production, Design: Jeff Ackley
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade, Nathan Goldberg, Reid Schilperoort
Media, Communications Planning: Danny Sheniak, John Furnari, Brian Goldstein, Anthony Holton
Account Team: Chris Willingham, Katie Gurgainus, Eric Watkins, Simone Jackson
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Laura Caldwell
Broadcast Traffic: Stefanie Goodell, Andrea Sierra

Production Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Mark Romanek
Executive Producer: SueEllen Clair
Line Producers: Bridgette Pugh, Tom Martin
Director of Photography: Adam Arkapaw
Production Designer: Jeff Higinbotham

Edit Company: Spot Welders
Editor: Robert Duffy
Assistant Editor: Sophie Kornberg
Post Producer: Lisa English
Executive Post Producer: Carolina Sanborn

Visual Effects Company: The Mill
2-D Lead Artist: John Shirley
2-D Artists: James Allen, Adam Lambert, Kelsey Napier
Senior Visual Effects Producer: Enca Kaul
Visual Effects Producer: Anastasia von Raul
Visual Effects Supervisor: John Shirley

Color: Company 3
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld
Color Producer: Ashley McKim

Producers: Rick Rubin, Jonathan Sanford
Composers: John Christopher Barnes, Jason Lader
Sound Designer: Matt Miller, Lime Studios
Song: "Here You Are"

Music, Sound, Mix: Licensed track from Human Worldwide
Producer: Rick Rubin
Audio Mixer: Matt Miller
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan

Out of Home Activations

Global Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte, Ryan O'Rourke
Interactive Director: Dan Viens
Copywriter: Josh Bogdan
Art Director: Pedro Izique
Motion Producer: Tori Herbst
Print Producers: Lindsay Haddy, Denise Hanggi, Kristen Holder, Stacie Balzar
Digital Producer: Keith Rice
Art Production: Amy Berriochoa, Krystle Mortimore
Project Management: Emily Norman 
Studio Design Manager: Simone Takasaki
Studio Designer: David Chathas
Retoucher: Kyle Pero
Motion Production/Design: Daniel Moreno, Alex Bernard
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade, Nathan Goldberg, Reid Schilperoort
Media/Comms Planning: Danny Sheniak, John Furnari, Brian Goldstein, Anthony Holton
Account Team: Chris Willingham, Katie Gurgainus, Eric Watkins, Simone Jackson, Carlyle Williamson
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Anna Beth Nagel

Specs
Current gig Managing director, Runner's World
Previous gig North America digital brand director, Nike
Age 34
Twitter @jnimurph

Adweek: What's your role as Runner's World's first managing director?
Jessica Murphy: The managing director role is a role that [focuses on evolving and expanding] the Runner's World footprint—to think through how the brand becomes more than the magazine and the website, becomes a brand in and of itself. Part of that is evolving a lot of the current efforts we're doing from a content perspective, and rethinking what content means. And also evaluating partnerships—the running industry is huge and it's grown so immensely in the past couple of years, and the role of Runner's World as the authoritative brand in running needs to evolve as well. The company and the brand have tested out a few different partnerships and haven't been quite sure where to fully invest our time and dollars, so that will be my role thinking about how as a brand we help the sport, how we evolve what we're doing from a content standpoint and how we create new things that ultimately help our runners become better.

You recently came from Nike and have been at Runner's World for about two months. What are you bringing from the brand perspective that adds value to a publisher?
We're starting to treat Runner's World like a brand because it is a brand. As traditional magazine companies have entered the digital space and expanded across platforms, you have to really think about [the publisher] as a brand and not just a magazine extended across platforms. In many cases we need to do new things on some of these social platforms that are digital first, that are things you wouldn't experience in the magazine. [We're] spending a lot of time thinking through the needs of the runner—what they are trying to achieve and what is getting in the way—and how we can potentially solve some of those problems. My experience working at Nike and from a brand perspective can help us approach it the way a true brand would and not the way a traditional magazine publication would.

Are you working with any partners right now?
From an events perspective, that is a big area that we've been focusing on. It's an extremely crowded marketplace and we don't necessarily need to get involved in a competitive marketplace where there are plenty of other [brands] serving that purpose. But again, it's defining our role when we partner with a race.

A good example is the Marine Corps Marathon [in D.C.], which we have partnered with for a couple of years. We provide a VIP experience. A couple of our editors go and run, we invite other runners to join us and we give them a training journey before the race. At the event they get an elevated hospitality experience. We show them that we as a brand understand what their needs are throughout training and on race day.

Where do you see Runner's World in a year?
I see us having a more defined role in the entire runner journey. Right now, we do a really great job doing informational content, but there are new and exciting ways to deliver that inspiration or information that make running and training easier. We're half way there because we have all of the right information, but the delivery mechanism could be more interesting and exciting. That's where, either through existing content channels or through partnerships, we will see the brand come to life in some new and exciting ways.

What about the magazine? 
I have a lot of passion for what can be delivered in the print medium that can't be anywhere else. We can really celebrate print in a new way, thinking through what experience you can get flipping through a magazine that you can't get online, so you feel like you can't wait to get the magazine every month and can't wait to read it.

Are you running the New York City Marathon on Nov. 6? 
I'm not. It's still on my bucket list, but [I just ran the Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 30] and I just ran Chicago [on Oct. 9].

This story first appeared in the October 31, 2016 issue of Adweek magazine.
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Timing is everything. It was true early Thursday morning for the Chicago Cubs, who are World Series champions after 108 years of futility. And it was true for Nike, which used the first ad slot after the final out of Game 7 to air the spot below from Wieden + Kennedy—a lovely, quiet salute to the positive spirit of the team during its 2016 playoff run.



Nike has been rallying the city of Chicago all week long with a "Make Someday Today" campaign featuring "living" out-of-home ads, including billboards that reacted to actual game action. Kudos to W+K and Nike for a great merging of creative and media celebrating a historic moment in sports.

In some ways, the spot echoes the "Worth the Wait" ad that Nike made when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA title in June. You have to wonder what the Indians spot looked like that Nike surely made for tonight, too.

CREDITS
Client: Nike

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
North America Creative Directors: Antony Goldstein, Chris Groom, Stuart Brown
Copywriter: Nick Morrissey
Art Director: Jon Kubik 
Director of Integrated Production: Matt Hunnicutt
Senior Integrated Producer: Molly Tait Tanen
Integrated Producer: Mauricio Granado
Digital Producer: Keith Rice
Art Production: Krystle Mortimore
Project Management: Andrea Nelsen
Studio Design Manager: Matt Blum
Studio Designer: Randall Garcia
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade, Reid Schilperoort, Zack Kaplan, Tom Suharto
Media, Communications Planning: Danny Sheniak, Reme DeBisschop, Alex Dobson, Emily Graham, Anthony Holton
Account Team: Chris Willingham, Alyssa Ramsey, Hannah Hewitt, Corey Woodson, Tobin Kittoe, Carlyle Williamson
Business Affairs: Dusty Slowik, Brian Cook
Broadcast Traffic: Andrea Sierra, Stephanie Goodell.

Production Companies: Somesuch; Anonymous Content
Director: Daniel Wolfe
Executive Producers: Eric Stern (Anonymous Content); Tim Nash, Sally Campbell (Somesuch)
Line Producer: Natalie Jacobson
Director of Photography: Tom Townend
Production Designer: Andrew Clark

Editorial Companies: Joint; Trim
Editors: Peter Wiedensmith, Tom Lindsay
Assistant Editors: Kevin Alfoldy, J.B. Jacobs
Post Producer: Catherine Liu
Executive Post Producer: Leslie Carthy

Visual Effects Company: Joint
2-D Artists: Katrina Slicrup, Robert Murdock
Executive Producer: Alex Thiesen
Producers: Rebekah Koerbel, Nathanael Horton
Colorist: David Jahns
Color Producers: Rebekah Koerbel, Nathanael Horton

Music, Sound, Mix Company: Joint
Audio Mixer: Noah Woodburn
Executive Producer: Natalie Huizenga
Producer: Sara Fink
Sound Designer: Noah Woodburn
Song: Willie Nelson, "Funny How Time Slips Away"

Even if you've only been working in advertising for a week, you've probably heard, or maybe even said, "What we need to do is find the white space."

Jonathan Cude Alex Fine

Yes, of course, the white space. The space no one else owns, that's just sitting there, like a pristine, snow-covered field in the upper right-hand quadrant of an X–Y axis, waiting to be tapped for its unfulfilled potential!

The problem is, there is no such thing as white space. Because there's no white space when we're talking about human beings and the reasons they want certain things.

Remember Maslow's hierarchy of needs? Essentials like breathing, food, water, sex and sleep made up the base of the pyramid, with things like security, health, friendship and family in the middle, followed by self-esteem, confidence, morality, creativity and spontaneity at the top. 

But whether the reference is Maslow or something like the more recent Elements of Value Pyramid, there are only a certain number of things people really want (or need) from life—let alone from a brand. The strongest brands get this. That's why they connect what they do with fulfilling at least one of those needs. It's pretty tough to satisfy a desire no one has. But a lot of money's been spent trying.

It makes sense, though, that brands feel pressure to differentiate. All brands want to stand out, get noticed and not get lost in the ever-growing clutter. So they go searching for white space in their positioning. Typically, the thinking goes something like this: If the category leader stands for X, then no other brand in the category can stand for X and must, therefore, stand for Y or Z.

This is a trap.

The reason the leader is the leader is not that they have a magical positioning. It's that they own the main reason people come to the category in the first place. So when a competitor attempts to counter by moving to untapped white space, they immediately become less relevant. Or said another way, no one gives a crap and the leader stays on top.

Even disruptive brands like Uber and Airbnb haven't uncovered white space. They've succeeded by fulfilling the exact same need for consumers that taxis and hotels do—with added value and innovation. The telegraph. The telephone. The internet. Three powerful innovations that all serve the same basic desire—connection.

By now you may be asking how all brands can stand for the same things. If they all connect to the most obvious, dominant emotional driver in a category, there's no reason to choose one brand over another, right?

Brands have to stand out in an obvious crowd—not stand alone in an unusual spot that no one cares about. There's a reason you wouldn't put a spaghetti sauce brand over on the aisle with the disinfectant brands just to help it stand out. It needs to be a part of the spaghetti sauce crowd without getting lost in it.

This is why creativity is the most powerful force in our industry.

Was Nike the only brand that could connect to the competitive spirit in every athlete? No, but by showing how the passion and drive of the world's best athletes could live in all of us, they owned it in a particular way that tapped into the sense of achievement we all want to feel.

Same for Dove. They had no inherent, unique quality that gave them permission to own beauty. But they've done it by provocatively challenging our assumptions about what beauty means. And we all want to feel beautiful.

Allstate and Mayhem. You get insurance because bad stuff can happen. Other insurance brands have made this point. But the simplicity and humorous drama of the execution separated it while connecting to the feeling of security we all want.

How a brand makes the connection to what people want is what distinguishes it.

This is where you should look for white space. An innovative, interesting, hilarious, spine-tingling, never-been-done-before approach—that's the trick. As long as it connects the brand to one of the relatively few things people actually care about.

If this doesn't work, there are two reasons why: one, it did work and the product or service isn't very good—nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising. (Bill Bernbach said that.) Or the connection to what people really want was missed.

There are only a finite number of things people want in life. For brands to be successful, they must connect to those things in an emotionally powerful and resonant way. Otherwise, they'll languish in the white space waiting for someone to show up.

Jonathan Cude (@jcude) is chief creative officer at McKinney.

This story first appeared in the December 12, 2016 issue of Adweek magazine.
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Television is enjoying a golden age, and social media is empowering and entertaining us like never before. Unless they're actually slowly killing us, Nike seems to suggest in this stressful, claustrophobic campaign from Wieden + Kennedy—encouraging us to get away from the screens and go for a run. 

TV, movies and social media are, deep down, kind of a waste of time, the campaign suggests. The ads are text-only, with a rapid-fire Siri-like robotic voice giving blow-by-blow accounts of the stupid and sordid details of our screen-based lives. 

The spots excoriate specific entertainments—there are not-so-veiled references to everything from The Real Housewives to Game of Thrones to The Walking Dead—as well as celebrity culture and the feedback loop of social media generally.



"Are we running today?" the ads ask at the end. The implication is clear: Try a little self-betterment in place of modern life's relentless self-debasement. 

It's a dark message, to be honest—and thus, quite in tune with the times—but done in a lighthearted way presumably designed to be inspirational and not depressing. It is, though, produced in such a way to be more than a little anxiety-inducing. 

Which is quite clever, actually. Aren't ads, after all, just part of the problem? You're watching them on a screen, and they're agitating you. Wouldn't you feel better if you turned off your phone or computer and went running? (Indeed, the anthem spot above wastes no time in implicating itself as a culprit—it does so in its opening seconds.) 

It's also just fun to see Nike and W+K, known for such big-budget blockbuster advertising, create something so simple, streamlined and no-budget. 

Check out a bunch more executions below.

CREDITS

Client: Nike
Project: Time Is Precious

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Chris Groom & Antony Goldstein
Creative: Stefan van den Boogaard
Creative: Tim Arts
Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Producer: Amy Berriochoa
Account Team: Anna Boteva, Luiza Prata Carvalho, Alyssa Ramsey
Strategic Planning: Zack Kaplan, Henry Lambert
Media/Comms Planning: Lisa Feldhusen, John Furnari
Business Affairs: Anna Beth Nagel
Project Management: Andrea Nelsen
Studio Designer: Leslie Waara
Studio Manager: Leticia Barajas
Motion Designer: Alex Bernard

Editorial Company: Joint
Editor: Eric Hill
Assistant Editors:: JB Jacobs, Kevin Alfoldy, Mimi Bergen, Dylan Sylwester
Post Producer: Sarah Fink
Post Executive Producer: Leslie Carthy

Mix Company: Joint
Mixer: Noah Woodburn
Audio Assistant: Natalie Huizenga
Audio Producer: Sarah Fink

Kevin Hart is a famous comedian who is busy at any given moment filming his latest buddy flick or starring in ad campaigns for H&M, Xfinity, Madden, etc. 

But he's also a frequent runner who recently made the life-changing decision to start using an Apple Watch Nike+ to track his workouts—and it led to some very strange places, according to this amusing new Nike campaign by Wieden + Kennedy Portland. 

The new Nike+ version of the Apple Watch begins each day by asking "Are we running today?" And for Hart, at least, the answer is always yes. 



As you can see, Hart just kept going, followed by his ever-expanding facial hair. Living as far off the grid as possible may have proven more challenging than expected, given the near-total absence of food and water, but that's nothing to a runner with a cause. 



Hart's isolation isn't complete, thanks to both the watch's networking services and the company of his new friend, Hollywood the wolf. 



As he approaches the 100-day mark, however, Hart begins to grow delusional to an "eating rocks" degree. And he hasn't even reached the halfway point of his run, wherever it may be leading him. 

Finally, our hero finds a new soulmate as he continues to make his way across the desert in a well-worn pair of Nike Lunar Epics. But the relationship is short-lived, as the watch asks, yet again, whether he plans on running today. 



The campaign may convince viewers that the new Apple Watch Nike+ and its attendant apps do indeed offer comprehensive run tracking services. But several questions remain: How did Hart charge his tech? What did he eat during this three-plus month period? Did he ever learn "what dirt really is"?

We do know the answer to the most important query, though: That beard was definitely fake.

When Kyrie Irving improvs on the court, it's like Questlove shredding a drum solo.

The two stars duet in a new ad from Nike and R/GA Los Angeles promoting the Kyrie 3 sneaker. The Cleveland Cavalier point guard dribbles, crossing over and changing tempo with dizzying precision, while the Roots drummer and frontman, nee Ahmir Khalib Thompson, throws off rapid-fire syncopations.

It's an impressive, brooding performance, a departure from the agency's goofier but plenty entertaining promos for previous versions of Irving's namesake footwear—like the Ky-rispy Kreme donut edition of the Kyrie 2. But the new ad still plays on a similar theme as previous campaigns, which emphasized the baller's "unexpected moves."



It's also a refreshing testament to the power of a simple idea, well executed. The thud of the ball bouncing on the floor blends with the thump of the kick drum, tightening the metaphor. These are two players at the top of their game, and even if it's hard to believe buying Nike's shoe will make you anywhere near as good as them, it's impossible not to stop and take note.

CREDITS
Client: Nike
Agency: R/GA Los Angeles
Directors: Matt & Mark Hoffman

After the nastiest, most mean-spirited presidential campaign in modern history resulted in a new presidency that will be markedly different from the last eight years, many questions remain about whether the divided country can overcome its deep lack of trust in our government, the media, and many institutions.

Margo Chase

At the opening of the 115th Congress, Speaker Paul Ryan tried to send a message of optimism and called for a fresh start, but will the country embrace that tone, given the rhetoric that preceded it?

What important lessons can brands and companies learn from these scenarios as they look to become beacons of inspiration, authenticity and trust? To earn trust, brands must create an emotional relationship with their customers through actions that inspire them and align with their values. Brands that forge strong relationships and build trust with their customers earn their loyalty for life.

Brands that engender trust have three attributes:

Honesty beyond reproach 
Trustworthy brands are honest and transparent. They don't lie about who they are, what they are made of or how they manufacture. Transparency about their products and their values is what defines them. According to the 2016 Food Revolution Study, 94 percent of consumers say transparency is important to their purchase decisions.

Fast-casual dining chain Panera Bread took this principle to heart. In May 2015, the company made a promise to stop using artificial ingredients by the end of 2016 and launched a "Food as It Should Be" marketing campaign and "transparent" menus that list calories, ingredients and nutritional information for every item.

Southwest Airlines is also using honesty as a differentiator. The airline's latest campaign headline,"Low fares. Nothing to hide. That's Transfarency," makes its position clear. For Southwest, "Transfarency" is a company-wide philosophy that inspires trust in customers because it's consistent with its brand position as a low-fare airline. When they say, "We're all about being open and honest with our customers," we believe them.

In contrast, Jessica Alba's The Honest Company is currently battling lawsuits claiming that the ingredients it uses in its products contain harmful chemicals. When a brand takes a stand for honesty, customers expect the company to deliver on that promise. Failure is seen as more than a simple mistake, it's a betrayal of trust.

Got your back
Trustworthy brands have their customers' best interests at heart and will take a stand to protect their employees and consumers even under extreme pressure. Following the publicized rise in bullying in schools, the Secret brand launched a campaign called "Mean Stinks" to encourage and empower girls to counter bullying by being nice. Secret's outreach programs position the brand as supportive and trustworthy in the minds of young girls who will be brand loyal as they grow up.

When Apple opted not to give the FBI the tools to unlock its phones, customers could be confident that their personal privacy and security were protected. Compare that behavior to Verizon, which freely turned over millions of phone records to the NSA and then agreed not to tell anyone. 

Own Your Errors
Trustworthy brands admit mistakes and work to repair the damage. How a brand responds when faced with a problem is critical. Chipotle's E. coli outbreak could have put the popular restaurant chain out of business. Instead, the brand took steps to close locations, institute new food safety measures and consistently communicate to the public. The chain took a big hit and continues to struggle against negative public perception, but a quick response positioned the fast-casual food chain as trustworthy to its loyal customers—a position that will pay off in the future.

Today, Nike is the undisputed leader of athletic brands in the U.S. But things weren't always so rosy. Two decades ago, reports about abusive labor practices caused customers to boycott the brand in droves. In the face of the rising sweatshop scandal, Nike's CEO Phil Knight took steps to aggressively and publicly make changes within the company. Nike admitted that it wasn't perfect and the admission lent it credibility with consumers, helping turn public sentiment in a positive direction.

Trust is not something that can be obtained instantly. Trust must be built gradually through consistent performance over time. Brands that are honest and transparent, brands that stand up and protect their customers and brands that respond quickly to admit and repair their mistakes earn the trust of their customers. They are consistent, reliable and deliver on their promises. Over time, these brands can become beacons of inspiration, authenticity and trust. Something we all long for in the aftermath of this contentious election.

Margo Chase is the founder and executive creative director of Chase Design Group, a creative agency with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

Get ready to watch and re-watch the new Nike Women ad from FKA Twigs featuring a cadre of athletes and dancers. It's just that much ethereal eye candy, set to a snippet of the performer's new song, "Trust in Me."

The mesmerizing spot, for which Twigs served as creative director, director and mastermind, hypes Nike's new Spring Zonal Strength Tights. The product gets a perfect showcase in her signature strenuous choreography and stunts featured in the two-minute mini-movie-music-video, shot around Mexico City, with co-stars like krump dancer Saskia Horton and Olympic fencer Miles Chamley-Watson.

In a statement, Twigs says: "When Nike first came to me with this project, I saw it as an opportunity to let young people know they have the power to become the best versions of themselves. I put together a cast of 12 incredible athletes to show that it's about what you do in fitness gear. It's about how you train. It's about how those things help your movement."



She had written the song, "Trust in Me," before Nike approached her.

"I realized it would be perfect, because the lyrics say, 'Put your trust in me.' In a way, we're asking people to look at me and the other amazing athletes in the video and trust the way we are," she says. "We've worked hard to perfect our crafts and create our own destinies, and we're feeling good in our bodies."

The short film is a gritty-beautiful mashup of face paint, long limbs, layered activewear and Bollywood-esque movement with the tagline, "Do you believe in more?" FKA Twigs directed the spot. It was produced by A+/Academy in London direct with Nike. The 17-year-old photographer David Uzochukwu shot the stills for the campaign. 

Twigs—who talks more about the ad, and its stars, here—has collaborated with brands like Calvin Klein and Google Glass in the past, taking on creative duties and, in the latter case, making the product look way cooler than it really was.

Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios' temperamental behavior, and frequent perceived lack of effort, are the subject of a new online Nike ad. But not everyone is happy with the message it seems to be sending. 

The ad, which is really more of a branded GIF, features a photo of a screaming Kyrgios whose head is surrounded by animated clouds and lightning bolts. The copy line is, "Dark clouds never got in the way of talent." 

Dark clouds never got in the way of talent ☁️️ #JustDoIt@NickKyrgiospic.twitter.com/iap52qyKS0

— Nike Australia (@nikeaustralia) January 15, 2017

First of all, that's wrong. The whole problem with Kyrgios is that he doesn't try hard enough on the court, and has been officially reprimanded for it at least twice. He's also unstable enough that John McEnroe, himself no stranger to being a jerk, has called him out for it. 

That's, like, the definition of dark clouds obscuring talent. 

@nikeaustralia@NickKyrgios from somebody who has been under those dark clouds in life, this is disgusting ad, just ask somebody who has

— rob (@robbierocket7) January 15, 2017

But more to the point, the copy line about "Dark clouds" has angered some mental health advocates, who say it minimizes the difficulties experienced by people with mental problems. 

You could also interpret the message as, "Mental illness can be defeated through ability/grit/brute force." A lot of people have interpreted it that way, and given the "Walk it off" attitude so prevalent in modern sports, I can understand why. 

In any case, advancing the discussion of mental illness in athletics is a lot to ask from what's essentially a tweet. But if you're willing to embrace the risk of using a controversial athlete to sell stuff, you should be open to deeper considerations, too. 

For what it's worth, Kyrgios doesn't seem to have a problem with the ad. He posted it, along with a second animation, on Twitter this week. 

Lightening only needs to strike once! #JustDoIt⚡️ pic.twitter.com/FYvhZjR6eC

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) January 17, 2017