Nike Advertisement (Losing Weight)

Product:  The product being advertised is the entire Nike brand collection.

Time Period:  This advertisement was most likely published in the 2010’s.

Purpose:  The advertisement is attempting to aid in the sales of Nike products. The secondary purpose of the advertisement could be trying to encourage a healthy lifestyle for those that are facing obesity.

Target Audience: 

·         The target audience of the advertisement are people that are trying to lose weight. You can clearly be able to recognize who the target audience is as it is people that are trying to lose weight like the boy in the advertisement.

·         What assumptions do the advertisers make about the audience? 

o   There are no clear assumptions made in this advertisement concerning race, gender, or class as none of them can be clearly seen in the advertisement.

Type of Claim: 

·         Endorsement/Testimonial

The advertisement uses an endorsement as there is a young boy running in the advertisement. The use of an endorsement would actually aid in the effectiveness of this claim as the endorser is using Nike products to lose weight. This gives consumers the connection of losing weight with Nike products when they are deciding what workout clothing they should purchase.

·         Transfer

The advertisement uses the image of the boy running to relate to the positive image of losing weight and being at a healthy weight. The use of this technique persuades the audience to want to purchase Nike so that they can be like the boy, losing weight.

·         Plain Folks

The advertisement uses the persuasive technique of plain folks as the boy in the image is just a regular person that is trying to lose weight with exercise. The use of this persuasive technique is effective in persuading the audience to want to purchase Nike as the target audience are ordinary members of society and not of some social elite that would look down on the advertisement.

Persuasive Appeals: 

·         Pathos

Pathos is used in the advertisement as the boy is clearly not enjoying his run. This type of appeal is probably not the best as it shows negativity due to how the boy is not happy in the picture.

·         Logos

The advertisement does not include logos as there are no statistics or facts in the ad.

·         Ethos

The advertisement uses ethos as it has a testimonial from the boy running in the image. The effectiveness of using the boy helps the product appeal to those that are also trying to lose weight as it gives the target audience a connection, losing weight is connected to wearing Nike during workouts.

Possible Consequences: 

·         Possible long term consequences of the advertisement is the decrease in obesity in consumers of Nike products or the boost in Nike product sales. A short term consequence could be obese people buying Nike products and also starting to change bad habits by starting new ones such as beginning to exercise.

·         The message that the advertisement has does not create unrealistic expectations because losing weight is within a person’s grasps, it is up to the person if he or she is motivated to actually lose the weight.

·         The message in the advertisement encourages social change as it is trying to change the current social norm of obesity. America has a growing trend of childhood obesity and Nike is trying to counter that trend by putting ads out there that show real people losing weight, becoming healthier by exercise and better food habits.

·         Nike is socially responsible as it had purposely used an obese boy to try to encourage a healthier lifestyle for those that are obese and to also boost its productivity.