Selling Truth: How Nike’s Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality

Authors

Jean M. Grow, Marquette UniversityFollow
Joyce M. Wolburg, Marquette UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Publication Date

2006

Publisher

Advertising Educational Foundation

Source Publication

Advertising & Society Review

Source ISSN

1534-7311

Abstract

This study tracked the evolution of three “big ideas” in Nike’s advertising to women from 1990 to 2000: empowerment, entitlement, and product emphasis. It also takes a longitudinal look at the process from which the ads were created and the way the creative team addressed the constraints upon that process. Based on depth interviews among key informants at Nike and its two ad agencies during that decade, it is the story of how the creative team produced advertising that challenged the media norms that affect the roles of women associated with the institution of sports. Though their creative strategy was simply to speak the truth as they saw it, it frequently pitted them against the executives at Nike in a battle over whose reality would be depicted.

Comments

Advertising & Society Review, Vol. 7, No. 2 (2006).

Recommended Citation

Grow, Jean M. and Wolburg, Joyce M., "Selling Truth: How Nike’s Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality" (2006). College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications. 21.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/comm_fac/21