Rallying Cry
Active wear is functional, yet stylish. It gives people who engage in exercise or sports a way to express themselves without having to say a word. However, clothing goes beyond expression when it comes to Nike. Nike is an active wear company for land and water sports, and targets both genders who exercise. While Nike’s intention is to target active males, Nike Women appeals to female exercise enthusiasts and females who play sports. In recent years, Nike launched a women’s apparel line to compete with rival companies, like Lululemon. Lululemon is an active wear company focused on women who participate in yoga and other exercise routines. To encourage women to buy their clothes, instead of their competitors, Nike Women releases countless advertisements that support their active wear by supporting women. A commercial produced by Nike, “Nike: Rallying Cry – Just Do It”, focuses on women who push themselves past their limits, even when faced with failure. In this commercial, multiple woman are faced with obstacles, like lifting heavy weights or running long flights of stairs. Each woman rallies through their hardships by screaming through the pain. In Nike Women’s commercial, “Nike: Rallying Cry – Just Do It”, Nike encourages women who need motivation to drive themselves the extra mile or push themselves past their limits.
Nike is a large, well-known athletic apparel business. Since 1964, Nike has increasingly become popular among athletes and active individuals. According to Nike News, Nike ended with a revenue of “$34.4 billion” in the 2017 fiscal year (Nike News). With a high fiscal revenue, Nike dominates the athletic wear market, which makes them a credible business to influence women who want to go the extra mile while training. Because of their credibility, Nike has ethos – an “[appeal] to an audience by showing one’s credibility and ethical character” (Literary Terms and) – and utilizes it to persuade new buyers to invest in Nike product and old customers to stay loyal to the company. Nike also has ethos because it does not focus on a single gender when selling apparel. Both males and females are targeted audiences when creating advertisements. Because no gender is excluded, customers continue to buy new clothing. Ethos plays a huge role in Nike’s business because it helps establish credibility among buyers who are looking a trustworthy company.
On top of ethos, Nike has other tactics to appeal to their audience. Inspiring commercials involving everyday people or endorsing famous, influential athletes to sport Nike gear influence women to buy Nike apparel. Nike promises to ‘“bring…stories to life through deeper consumer connections”’ which attracts women who search for meaning behind their motivation to exercise (Nike News). By using strong, well-known, female athletes, Nike emphasizes female empowerment. This empowerment is fueled by the consumer connections created through countless advertisements portraying women battling through adversity. The emotions that derive from this influential ad provides a sense of pathos for the audience. Ultimately, pathos is what creates an emotional connection with the audience and the author, and Nike does that.
The
connections Nike creates with their buyers is done through advertisement,
whether in a magazine or on television. Nike buyers include children, women,
and men. Creating apparel to attract these different types of buyers may prove
difficult, but Nike uses social media, like Instagram and Facebook to reach the
diverse crowd. Not only does Nike reach out to different ages and genders, they
also effect various ethnicities and races. Including a diverse cast in
commercials is an example of Nike connecting to their audience. This type of
inclusion catches the attention of the audience; therefore, people who are
anticipating buying athletic wear will remember Nike’s commercials and go buy Nike apparel. Diversity does not solely focus on ethnicity in this advertisement.
The ad contains various professional athletes including female boxer, Tayla
Harris. Involving different athletes further expands who buys Nike attire.
However, Nike does not limit their advertising models to famous athletes, they
also include normal, everyday people. When relatable people are used in
Nike advertisements, buyers can easily relate to the clothing line because not
every buyer is an all-star athlete.
When showing a woman facing difficulties in her life, Nike utilizes pathos to appeal to the audience’s emotions. Nike created “Rallying Cry – Just Do It” for women who need the additional motivation to push themselves the extra mile. It shows a montage of women struggling to overcome an obstacle, like running stairs or lifting weights. Nike portrays multiple obstacles because no women is alike, whether it be in this commercial or in real life. Each woman is faced with her own, individual challenge in this advertisement. Pathos is utilized in this commercial through mood; in addition, the mood is emphasized by Nike’s selection of music. The commercial, in the beginning, has an empathetic mood because the viewer sees strong, powerful women struggling to succeed. As the commercial continues, the women are accompanied by upbeat music that progressively gets louder. The music has a quick tempo which is paced with the breathes of the hardworking females (Nike: Rallying Cry). The increase of volume and tempo of the background music shifts the mood from empathetic to empowering as the viewer watches these women rally to overcome their obstacle. Music is not the only emphasizing element in the advertisement.
Nike draws parallels between the different sounds and images of the real world and the women in the commercial. Although there are no words or dialogue in the commercial, screaming and loud noise are repeated constantly throughout the advertisement. When the females in “Rallying Cry – Just Do It” fail or look as if they are going to give up, cars are shown in heavy traffic honking their horns repeatedly (Nike Rallying Cry). The loud noise represents how deafening our world can be which can ultimately obstruct one’s inner thoughts – the thoughts that matter. Nike includes the honking cars to symbolize how easily one’s thoughts can be lost with the world’s distractions surrounding everyone constantly. Each scream is a way of blocking out the world and showing that a simple shout provides the necessary mental fuel to achieve what lies ahead. No two screams are the same; some are short grunts, others are long shouts, but all have the same underlying meaning: finding the extra motivation deep down. The scream that accompanies each woman overcoming their obstacle demonstrates to the audience that women can have weaknesses, but also are capable of persevering through the blinding noise that is life. After every woman cries out, success follows. Being successful means multiple things, especially according to this Nike advertisement. The advertisement shows a water polo player yelling under water while fighting for the ball, a skateboarder performing a trick and someone running up a set of stairs. No matter the situation, Nike emphasizes nothing is too difficult to overcome and, if extra motivation is ever needed, letting out a rally cry just may be the push needed to achieve the impossible.
Once the women find their “scream”, Nike parallels their jumpstart to tackle their hardships to that of a car’s engine starting and a rocket taking off. A car’s tachometer flashes accompanied by a revving engine in the background symbolizes that the women in the commercial have enough will power to complete the task at hand. Nike includes in the advertisement a rocket taking off to symbolize the importance of the women finishing what is at hand and how it can be celebrated, just like when the world celebrated the rocket launching to the moon. No matter how minuscule the obstacle blocking the path to success may seem, Nike accentuates that overcoming it is as important as a rocket launching into space. After these images are shown, each woman rises to the challenge by “rallying” and crying out with force because they achieved their goals. Nike does this to symbolize a “kick start” in each individual woman portrayed in the advertisement. Nike included these clips to stress that women have the power inside of themselves to go the extra mile.
These
images of hardworking women help set up the tone. The tone of this commercial
is very powerful because it shows how these women persevered through their
individual battles. I react to this on an emotional level when I watch each of
these women yell through their pains and struggles and to overcome their
obstacle. At first, I saw women struggling and related to them because I am an
athlete who faces hardships while training. As the commercial progressed, the
women began to rally and draw strength from within themselves. This was
empowering to wacth. Nike emphasized the importance of women of different
ethnicities who are all facing numerous problems
As an athlete myself, finding
this commercial was inspiring. Seeing these women overcoming difficult obstacles
proves to me that nothing is impossible. I wake up every morning faced
with the decision of how my day will be: will I try my hardest and break
barriers, or will I succumb to what is easier and break under pressure? As I
watch this commercial, it inspires me to accomplish the little things
throughout my day, like finishing a swim set or adding weight while lifting. No
longer will I sit back and watch opportunities pass me by because of
intimidation or exhaustion. I will aspire to be like the Nike women in this
advertisement who fight through the adversities in their life. I will let out
my inner scream to motivate myself to hurdle over obstacles standing in my way.
The world will know how dedicated I am in becoming successful. Nike utilizes so
many incredible women in this advertisement. Women, like Serena Williams, an
Olympic tennis player, who breaks the mold of society’s view of females, and
proves that women are tenacious; ultimately, inspiring myself to be comfortable
and excel in athletics.
Nike goes beyond what is
expected of a successful, name brand company. Some companies do not include a
diverse cast of models in their commercials, even though the public demands
inclusion of different types of people. On the other hand, Nike makes an effort
to incorporate different ethnicities and body types because that is what the
world consists of. Involving these different types of women in their commercial
appeals to Nike consumers because it makes the company relatable. The
commercial not only breaks the mold of stereotypical athletic commercials that
have a fit cast, Nike also proves that women are physically and mentally
powerful. Although the advertisement does not have dialogue, background music
fills the empty space to set the mood and the tone. Along with background
music, Nike displays the women in the commercial letting out a powerful scream
that symbolizes the extra fuel needed to succeed. To
relate to women who do not play a sport, but are active, Nike includes a woman
doing yoga and another woman running. Nike then relates to female athletes by
showing Serena Williams yelling at a tennis match demonstrating her
persistence. Nike uses their platform to sell their merchandise, but to also
influence women to find the determination to succeed, even if that means
letting out a scream that the world can hear.
Works Cited
“Literary Terms, Techniques, and Elements.” Literary Devices, 21 August 2016, www.literarydevices.com/. Accessed 28 September.
“NIKE, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2017 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results.” Nike News, 29 June 2017, https://news.nike.com/news/nike-inc-reports-fiscal-2017-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-results. Accessed 22 September 2018.
“Nike: Rallying Cry – Just Do It.” YouTube, 11 September 2018, https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=5evnzAzg-9M. Accessed 1 October 2018.
