Why Nike doesn't do funny shit | Bobby Pawar @ Havas Group [#3]

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

I don't think consumers differentiate between 85, 95 and 90

Bobby Pawar (0:06)

At the top, there's only room for one, right?

SPEAKER_1 (0:08)

I believe in India, 80% of celebrity usage in advertising that I see is not thought to be. Creating is easy.

What to create is a million dollar question.

Vani (0:20)

Hi, you're listening to Marketing with Vani, in which I speak to marketing gurus. Together we decode how marketing works in the real world to grow your business.

Have you ever noticed Nike never does a funny ad? In the next few minutes, Bobby explains why Nike doesn't do funny shit. And he narrates this little story of how a really funny script was presented to the CEO of Nike.

And he fell over his chair laughing. And yet he said, isn't it a pity this ad is never going to be made because Nike doesn't do funny shit. Listen on and you'd know why Nike is Nike. Nike is inspirational. It doesn't do funny shit. Think about what you'd like your brand to be.

Bobby Pawar (1:12)

It's just, this is Chuck McBride, famous guy who did a lot of famous work on Nike then went on to do the impossible is nothing campaign for Adidas, right? I mean, amazing creative director, creative himself, right? And so he was telling me the story about he was working in one Kennedy, Portland, right? Then Chuck and I just did an award show together. We were out drinking to the VRs of the morning, right? And somewhere between the many, many drinks.

It's like he was kind of bitching and moaning about, like one of the, he had like a great campaign idea, which is really funny for Nike. And he presented to Dan Wyden, right? And that, and he said, I mean, he laughed, right? Dan laughed when he heard the scripts and all that.

And Chuck thought he had sealed the deal. It's like, you've got Dan's seal of approval in his laughter. And then there was silence. And then Chuck says, right? Dan says, hey Chuck, that's really good work, pity it's not ever going to run a Nike, right? It was something to that effect. And Chuck's like, you know, gobsmacked. He said, why? He said, yeah, you know, Nike doesn't do funny shit. We do inspirational stuff, right?

And rarely do the two go hand in hand.

So, and that's the thing of consistency, right? It's a lot of times people sort of mistake consistency in the sense of, well, the logo should always be right. And then, you know, the format should always be the same. That's the photocopy version of consistency, right? That, especially in today's, you know, always on pretty much mostly engaged kind of word that we live in, that if you do that, you're going to be boring, right? The consistency comes from your visual grammar, right?

And your tone.

Vani (3:32)

Your visual grammar and the tone, you said, consistency.

Bobby Pawar (3:36)

And the tone of your brand, right? And it comes from the values that you stand for. So you need to be guided by that. It's lazy people who resort to the straight jacket framework of format and all of that, right? It rarely ever works for a long time.

Nike has done many different formats over the years. They've used many different lines before to just do it.

Sometimes they don't, you just do it at all.

Vani (4:11)

Really? Nike has used other lines other than just you?

Bobby Pawar (4:15)

Find your greatness.

Vani (4:16)

Yes.

Bobby Pawar (4:17)

There are many here. Write the future. There are many, right?

Vani (4:23)

But I've never seen a funny piece of advertising from Nike. Nike doesn't make you laugh.

Bobby Pawar (4:30)

It's that inspirational brand, right? The whole thing is to inspire people to believe that if you have a body, you can be an athlete, right?

So it just telling jokes just kind of gets in the way of that.

Vani (4:50)

I hope you liked my show. And if you did, please do consider subscribing. I also have a YouTube channel by the same name, Marketing by Vani. Please do check that out too. Thank you.

So I did screw up.

My YouTube channel is called Marketing with Vani. The same name as this podcast.