Nike has a new slogan for the Olympics: "Find Your Greatness". So far they have shown this in ads about athletic stuff, but what about other kinds of greatness? Maybe they could do a bus stop print campaign for this slogan, but with great historical figures, or with great artists, all with some Nike "Swoosh" logo on them somewhere. Like they could have some painting of George Washington in his regular uniform, but with some Nike trainers on his feet. Or how about Napoleon in his usual outfit, but with a Nike logo on one side of his coat's chest area, across from all his medals, like on a soccer jersey? Or they could show Leopold Stokowski conducting a symphony in a tuxedo with a Nike logo on the sleeve, like on the Olympics commentator shirts (or maybe with him conducting with a Nike logo as a baton). Or how about Vincent van Gogh in his self portrait with the bandaged ear, but with a Nike "Swoosh" logo on his ear bandage? Or how about Pablo Picasso painting with a brush shaped like a Nike logo? Or maybe Albert Einstein with Nike "Swoosh" logos for eyebrows? (Or maybe Mr. Spock with Nike logo eyebrows.) And then maybe adding the Nike logo to the jackets of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band outfits (with The Beatles in them, of course). It would be silly (kind of like a joke version of Apple's "Think Different" billboards), but I'll bet everyone would remember it. And it would work well with that new Nike slogan: "Find Your Greatness".
You know, the great thing about this Nike slogan "Find Your Greatness", just like with their old one: "Just Do It", is that it's not really trying to twist your arm to buy their stuff, so much as it's saying to go for your dreams and get active. (And if, on the way, you might be helped in that direction by buying some of their stuff, well, then, so much the better! But that is an implied afterthought. They're trying to tie the idea of trying and going for your dreams to their brand on a subconscious level, sure; but it's also a pep talk that might encourage people in any endeavor.) You don't have to buy their stuff: just get going! (Like the Santa Claus policy in Miracle on 34th St. to encourage people to buy the right toys wherever they're available, and to advise people where they can get stuff if Macy's doesn't have it: Mr. Macy said of the policy (as an aside), after saying it sounds dumb, but it works: "...and consequently we'll make more profit than ever before!" It's kinda like that.) And then they get you to associate that encouragement with their logo. It's kind of like imprinting, only without all those birds flying around after them everywhere. (That's an animal psychology joke!)
But the Apple "Think Different" ads, while similar in concept (trying to inspire greatness, rather than pushing their products per se), is a bit different in some respects. It's great too, but it can be read in another way also, which is this: showing great genius-type people and putting them in an ad for Apple is essentially also appropriating their genius for Apple. And there's nothing these great people can do about it, because they're mostly all dead. In fact, perhaps this is what's going to cause that zombie apocalypse everyone's been talking about and preparing for: dead people will get mad about being put in advertising without their permission, and they'll rise from their graves and destroy humanity to get revenge! (Actually, I love Apple computers, and that "Think Different" ad campaign of theirs, but there is that possible associating-your-unrelated-brand-with-someone-else's-genius way of reading it, you see {which I'm satirizing above [as in: just slap a Nike logo on someone great, and absorb their greatness like in The Highlander.], but which also might make a fun ad campaign anyway}. And Albert Einstein? He'd probably work for the government if he were alive today, and they'd refuse to pay for the expensive Macs, or else he'd use some custom jobbie nobody's ever heard of. Or else he'd say: "I don't need some computer: I can figure everything out in my head, you presumptuous idiots!")
