Footwear companies are not "abandoning athletes," in
their '98 advertising campaigns, but "many are rethinking
how athletes are depicted in ads and moving away from the
bombast that characterized past marketing campaigns in favor
of lower-key approaches," according to AD AGE's Jeff Jensen
(1/12 issue). Reebok CEO Paul Fireman commented yesterday
on the company's new ad focus: "Instead of building heroes
in the future, we will build products of the future and let
heroes wear it" (AP/S.D. UNION TRIBUNE, 1/14).
I CAN? Nike's new ad campaign, "I Can," is reviewed by
ADWEEK's Debra Goldman, who writes "even though you've seen
these ads before, you've probably never seen them look so
good. They're all execution, all surface." But Goldman
adds "it's about time Nike started paying less attention to
itself in its communications and devoted more time to its
restless customers," adding "cutting-edge advertising may
not be enough to keep Nike on the cutting edge" (ADWEEK,
1/12). In St. Paul, columnist Jim Caple: "[I]nstead of
spending lavishly on a new slogan and marketing campaign,
Nike would be better off curbing the endorsement checks,
toning down its presence and raising the wages for workers
overseas" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 1/10). AD AGE's Rance
Crain writes "I Can" is a "step in the wrong direction."
Crain adds that "real trouble" starts when a company's
communications "is no longer true to itself. Nike's new ad
campaign starts the company down that path" (AD AGE, 1/12).
