Nike: Take It To The Next Level Commercial

Nike is a world-renowned athletic apparel company and is known for their classic "swoosh/check". Their most common slogan is the phrase, " just do it", however, in this commercial the signature phrase is not used. Instead, Nike shows the audience how to “take it to the next level” by showcasing a first person view of a soccer player's progression from the minor soccer leagues to the premier professional team; Arsenal. To showcase their apparel, Nike displays the trademark “swoosh” on all clothing, shoes, jerseys, socks, and even uses Nike adds as banners during the soccer games. The plot of the commercial displays the failures and mistakes of the player throughout the season. To increase the popularity of the video, Nike floods the commercial with popular super star soccer players such as Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder, Cesc Fabregas, William Gallas, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Marco Materazzi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Nani and Arsene Wenger.

Take It To The Next Level uses the three rhetoric appeals of pathos, logos, and ethos to target male soccer players. The most commonly used appeal in the video is pathos then logos, and lastly ethos. In this blog post, I will explain how each is used to persuade the target audience to use Nike apparel.

Nike uses Pathos in the commercial to create excitement, eagerness and motivate the target audience. To do this, Nike appeals to the audience’s emotions by showing how the main character is able to transition from a minor league player, to a professional bench player on Arsenal, to the eventual starter on Arsenal. Many players will feel motivated because they can see that it takes hard work to keep improving your abilities. During his’ progression, he makes mistakes in the game and pays the consequences. However, the character trains hard and he is able to elevate his performance or “Take it to the next level”. As he begins to play better, he is able to enjoy the riches in life such gorgeous women and nicer cars. This is the classic story of failure and then success story that many advertisements use to appeal to peoples’ pathos appeals. Viewers will react to the storyline in a very positive way and feel excited to get back on the field. Another example of pathos being used is the soundtrack called Don’t Speak by the Eagles of Death Metal. The song his rock-heavy and has a very up beat tempo that many athletes listen to in order to motivate themselves. The song grasps the audience’s attention instead of a slower song that would take away from the action in the commercial.

The rhetoric appeal of Ethos in the commercial is using famous players in the matches. In each of these matches, the players showcase their skills in dominating fashion. These players are known for their high level of play in soccer as well as their well-mannered behavior in the media. Man of these athletes are very active in the community doing charity works such as SOS Children's Villages, UNICEF, and United Nations Development Programme. These charities focus on less fortunate children by helping them in the classroom and getting involved in sports. The target audience will recognize some of these players, if not all, and immediately give Nike creditability.

Lastly, showing many top soccer athletes, who play against the main character, that are endorsed by Nike, uses the appeal of logos. This shows the credibility of Nike products because these athletes perform at high levels in their games, are fan favorites, and they are some of the most grossing athletes in the world. In fact, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, both endorsed by Nike, are both on the top of the Forbes List of Highest Paid Footballers 2011 with net worth of $44 million and $38 million respectively. The target audience, male soccer players, will recognize this and conclude that Nike is the product that the best soccer players in the world use.

In conclusion, I believe that this is a very effective advertisement for Nike. Nike is able to effectively use all three rhetoric appeals to create a positive view of their products to the target audience. Pathos, arguably the most influential rhetoric appeal used in the ad, allows the target audience to relate to what is involved in the ad. The target audience, male soccer players, believes that Nike products will help them take their game to the next level.