"Just Do It" - The Sinister Origin of Nike's Legendary Slogan

00:00:29 Speaker 1: Hey, folks, I'm Will Gatchell and you're listening to Sports Dot m p three, a sports adjacent podcast that explores the fascinating stories behind some of the most iconic sounds, quotes, and play calls in sports. Today's topic is centered around the surprisingly sinister inspiration that led to the creation of one of the most memorable slogans in human history, Nike's just do it. But before I get to all that, I have to sit the stage, and to do that, we have to talk about the power of slogans. So sit back, relax, and let's get into it. Slogans are strange. At their core, they're just a handful of words. Yet that simplicity is just an illusion. In truth, slogans are the culmination of painstaking market research, psychological tactics, and imagery meant to change human behavior. These strings of words, which you can see on bumper stickers and bill boards or here on the radio, have the power to bring in billions of dollars of revenue or, in bad cases, cause a company to go under. There might not be a better example of the power of slogans than diamonds. Weddings have been around for thousands of years and The first known instance of a wedding ring dates back to ancient Egypt, where couples exchanged rings made of hemp or reeds to symbolize their eternal commitment to one another. Due to the material makeup, these engagement rings were often replaced with leather or ivory, which lasted longer. The ancient Romans and Greeks also made rings for their engagements, and they, just like the Egyptians, placed the ring on the ring finger of the left hand, as they believed that finger had a vein leading directly to one's heart, called the vena amoris. One major difference is that the Romans used iron and other precious metals to forge their rings, a concept that is also lasted into modern times. In the nineteen thirties, engagement rings in America were a standard cultural tradition, much like they are now. Unlike today, however, less than ten percent of marriage proposals involved rings that contained diamonds. Debier's, a South African British mining and diamond trading company that controlled more than seventy five percent of the world's diamond distribution at the time, wanted to change that, so in nineteen thirty eight, they hired Mary Francis Jarity, an aspiring twenty seven year old copywriter at n. W Ayer and Son, one of New York's biggest advertising agencies, to help advertise their diamonds. It was not an easy task, especially in the midst of the Great Depression, though she would strike gold in nineteen forty eight when she was tasked with creating a slogan that tied diamonds to the concept of eternal love and romance. Struggling for inspiration in the late hours of the night right before the presentation, a slogan came to Charity, and she wrote it down on a piece of paper nearby. The following morning, she presented it to her associates, who, despite being initially skeptical at the weird grammar, approved it. The slogan was just four words, A diamond is Forever. Dabiers used the slogan in every future advertisement, and it worked. It worked so well, in fact, that by the end of the twentieth century, eighty percent of engagement rings in the United States contained diamonds. That simple slogan literally changed human behavior, and it's the perfect example of a good slogan. Some slogans, even the good ones can shift over time, eventually representing something entirely different than originally intended, and that's certainly the case with one of Texas's most iconic slogans. In the nineteen eighties, the Texas Department of Transportation had a littering problem. People were throwing trash all over the highways, and the biggest culprit was young men between the ages of eighteen and thirty five. A marketing slogan like keep Texas Beautiful wouldn't be very effective in reaching those young men, so they hired advertising firm GSD and M to come up with a solution. That solution came in the form of a slogan, Don't Mess with Texas. It was a play on words, as in, don't make a mess in Texas by littering, but it also had a bit of bite to it, a perfect fit for the demographic they were targeting with their messaging, and just to ensure that eighteen to thirty five year old men in Texas saw the campaign, they aired a commercial with the slogan during the Cotton Bowl in nineteen eighty six, with Steve ray Vaughn singing the Eyes of Texas and ending it by looking directly into the camera and saying don't mess with Texas. The slogan was a massive success. Roadside litter in Texas reportedly dropped over seventy percent between nineteen eighty seven and nineteen ninety. Unlike the diamond slogan, which has essentially remained unchanged over time, this Texas slogan took on a life of its own, turning from an anti littering campaign into a cultural identity or rallying cry for Texas state pride. The slogan can now be found on bumper stickers, merchandise, and flags, but be careful because the state is notoriously strict on enforcing its trademark, sending cease and desist letters to anyone making don't mess with Texas shirts. This second example showcases that slogans are not just static, unchanging strings of words. They can become cultural symbols and manifest into new meanings we can't predict at the time. But enough about those slogans. This is sports side MP three, after all, so let's talk about Nike's transcendent slogan just Do It, and how its origins are a lot more sinister than you think. In nineteen eighty seven, Nike was not the massive, world renowned brand it is today. They had great products and a growing roster of star athletes, but still lagged behind bigger competitors like Rebok. They were right on the precipice of breaking through to the world stage, and their big plan hinged on their first ever major television campaign. It was basically the magnum opus of their marketing attempts, one that would either make or break them. Nike had hired advertising firms Widen and Kennedy to create the campaigns, with co founder Dan Widen leading the charge. Nike's string of TV commercials covered a variety of demographics, as they were advertising not just to professional athletes, but everyday people, mothers, fathers, walkers, joggers, occasional workouts. You get the idea. They were reaching out to a broad array of people with these different commercials. Wyden thought such a wide range of customers and commercials required an all encompassing idea to tie them all together. After all, this issue was part of the reason Nike was struggling to stand out amongst its competitors. Widen, however, soon came up with a slogan that and his eyes bridged the gap between the hardcore athletes and weekend joggers a universal message that appealed to everyone in their target audience, Just do It. Only three words, none more than four letters long. It struck that impossible to achieve balance of simplicity and action, vague enough to apply to anyone and specific enough to resonate with each individual person who heard it. When he pitched the slogan to Nike's co founder, Phil Knight and other executives, the reaction was pretty mixed, According to the words of Ryan Waite, an adjunct marketing professor at Brigham Young University, Hawaii. Quote, some at Nike didn't think a slogan was necessary. Even Phil Knight reportedly dismissed it, but wydun fought for it because he believed it could tie their campaign together and speak to everyone, not just athletes unquote. Whyden's efforts to include the slogan in the TV campaign paid off, and when Nike launched their new advertisements in nineteen eighty eight, they all included the iconic slogan just do It. The first television commercial to air. The slogan is probably my favorite Nike commercial of all time. It's only thirty seve It's long and shows an eighty year old man named Walt Stack running across the Golden Gate Bridge. There are no fancy edits or camera transitions, and it simply fades to black at the end, displaying the words just do it, followed by the Nike logo, Well you can't see it. Here's the audio from that commercial. I run seventeen miles every morning. People ask me how I keep my teeth from chattering at a winter time, I leave my locker. The success of the slogan was immediate. The message resonated with people across the world, and it's estimated the Nike's international sales went from eight one hundred and seventy seven million dollars a year to nine point two billion dollars within ten years of the campaign's launch. Today, the slogan is synonymous with Nike, and the global brand has continued using it in new and innovative ways, like adding it to their campaign focused on empowering women in Sports and winning a nineteen ninety five Access Award for its just Duet poster done entirely in braille. If anything, the slogan is more of a brand motto or philosophy at this point, which Nike itself admits, and that makes it all the more fascinating when you find out the source of its inspiration. Widen's iconic slogan, as he later admitted himself, was inspired from a notorious killer who was executed by firing squad in Utah in the seventies. Gary Mark Gilmour was born in Texas in nineteen forty to Frank and Bessie Gilmore. Well, technically speaking, I guess that's not true because at the time of his birth, Gary's parents were living under a pseudonym of Kaufman, as his father, Frank, was an alcoholic con man constantly on the run from the law, so Gary was officially and legally named Fay Robert Kaufman, though his mother Bessie changed it to Gary Mark Gilmour when the family left Texas a bit later. If you can't tell yet, Gary's childhood was not what one would call a loving upbringing. He never had a good relationship with his father, who was quite abusive and cruel, and part of that strained relationship was due to the fact that his father thought Gary was not his son, while Bessie did indeed have an illegitimate son. It was not Gary, but rather Gary's older brother, Frank Junior, a very ironic choice of name all things considered. Gary and his brothers were often whipped by their father, who supported the family by selling fake magazine subscriptions and moving throughout the Western United States. Whenever their scams got exposed. Bessie and Frank were constantly yelling and sometimes fighting each other, and this continued when the family eventually settled down in Portland, Oregon, in nineteen fifty two. Despite scoring well on the mandated aptitude tests in school, Gary quickly pursued a life of petty crime, even dropping out of high school as a freshman and running away to Texas to live with a friend for several months. Though he did eventually return, his criminal enterprises soon escalated. As a fourteen year old, he was arrested for starting a car theft ring and left off with a warning. Two weeks later, he was back on new car theft ring charges and sent to a reform school for boys. When he was out of that, he got another carthep charge and was sent to a correctional institution. When his father died in nineteen sixty two from terminal lung cancer. Gary was in jail for driving without a license, and he was devastated to learn of his father's passing. His crimes got worse after this news, and he spent the next several years at Oregon State Penitentiary, where he was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. In nineteen seventy six, he was conditionally paroled to live with a distant cousin in Provo, Utah, where he began working odd jobs. But it didn't take long for Gary to start stealing, drinking too much, and fighting. On July nineteenth, nineteen seventy six, Gary robbed a gas station and murdered the employee there, Max Jensen, even though he had complied with all of Gary's demands. The next night, Gary robbed and murdered a hotel manager named Benny Bushnell, who had also followed all of his orders. While attempting to dispose of the murder weapon, Gary accidentally shot himself in the right hand. A garage mechanic who was working on Gary's car noticed his bloody hand, remembered hearing about a recent shooting on a police scanner, wrote down Gary's license plate and later called the police to inform them of the situation. The Utah State Police arrested him before he could flee the state, and after a lengthy back and forth trial, Gary Gilmore was eventually sentenced to death. The case quickly became one of the bigger news stories in the country because Gary would be the first person in the United States to be executed since the reinstatement of the death penalty in nineteen seventy six. Shortly before his execution, Saturday Night Live, which was only in its second season, included a Christmas themed skit with a song called Let's Kill Gary Gilmour for Christmas. On January seventeenth, nineteen seventy seven, at precisely eight o seven am, Gary Gilmour was executed by firing squad at the Utah State Prison. Immediately beforehand strapped to a chair and facing a curtain with five tiny holes for the five guns of the police officers standing behind it, Gary was asked if he had any last words, to which he replied, Let's do it. During a two thousand and nine documentary about advertising by Doug Prey, Dan Whyden admitted that the murderer's final words were the inspiration behind Nike's just Do It campaign. Now, Wyden didn't tell all the Nike executives this facet of the story when he pitched it to them, and probably for a good reason, as he waited until Just Do It was firmly entrenched as a positive Nike specific slogan before telling anyone it was all based on a notorious murderer's final word, and he was not the only one who found some odd source of inspiration from Gary gilmore Four different bands released songs about the murderer, including the adverts Gary Gilmour's Eyes, The Judies, How's Gary, The Chain Gangs, Gary Gilmour and The Island of Doctor Moreau, and the Polices Bring On the Night, which is based on the night before Gary was executed. There was also a movie called Executioner's Song, based on a book by Norman Mahler, that was all about the trial and execution, featuring Tommy Lee Jones as Gary Gilmour. It's weird to think that a slogan as popular and simple as just do It was inspired by a double murderer telling a firing squad to get on with it. Just do It is on posters across the world, tattooed on people's skins and might be more recognizable than any Shakespearean line. It's hard to find a greater meaning or message from this particular story. If anything, I think it's the perfect example of creativity. There are infinite sources of inspiration all around us, more than we can comprehend, and Dan Widen, using Gary Gilmour's final words as the inspiration behind one of the greatest marketing campaigns of all time is the epitome of that. What's more, he took the finality of death and morphed it into a three word slogan that urges people to live, to get up and just do it. Thank you all so much for listening to today's episode of Sports Dot MP three. As always, I'm your host, Will Gatchell, and I'll be back next Thursday with a new episode. See you next week. Peace, don't don't not the contract don't don't