Nike ATHLETE campaign

On 24th of August 2007, Nike Inc. launched its multiplatform campaign titled “ATHLETE” as an effort to promote the awareness to respect female athletes and judging them based on their athletic abilities. This campaign featuring world-class athletes such as Mia Hamm, Gabby Reece, Picabo Street and Serena Williams took on a variety of forms including broadcast television, billboard, print and digital destination. In particular two video clips designed to be broadcasted on television and internet, women athletes were seen stepping on top of an elevated platform and voicing out their thoughts over a large “voice-amplifying” cone, in which they display dissatisfactions over the common society bias that female athletes are not as good as men.

This bias exists in all kind of sports, where female athletes receive less viewership and concern from the society. For example, televised WNBA games are played during a shortened summer season by players make ten to twenty times less than their male counterpart. The scenario is worsen when the television coverage of female athletes is inconsistence and somewhat non-existent most of the time as media focus mainly on the games played by male athletes. In fact, the usage of elevated platform and large “voice-amplifying” cone in the videos metaphorically suggests the “lack of existence” of female athletes compared to male athletes in the society and the deficient of interest towards them. This only suggests that female athletes are not valued as much as male and thus in need of a platform to change such perception. In this case, Nike Inc. had provided them a connecting bridge between them and the society as an effort in making their performance and efforts spent in sports make known to public.