Tong 1

Aiyana Tong
Professor Arini
English 101-15
September 23, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv09DRd4lsM

Nike Football- Winner Stays- Risk Everything

In 2014, Nike released a huge commercial with its Risk Everything campaign, including

a four-minute commercial, Winner Stays. It was released about two months prior to the 2014

FIFA World Cup. At this time, Nike’s spending costs were said to go up 36% to $876m (“Nike’s

Marketing Costs”). With such a heavy rise in marketing expenses, it is certain they would ensure

their money is put to good use. This offers an excellent opportunity to analyze their advertising

rhetoric. There are a number of rhetorics Nike incorporates into the Winner Stays commercial.

This analysis will specifically discuss the use of racial diversity, relatability, sex appeal,

advertising, humor, ethos, pathos, and some things Nike might hope the audience will overlook.

The use of racial diversity is seen right at the beginning of the commercial, as the

advertisement starts out on the face of a young lad wearing a Nike beanie and Nike shirt. It starts

to zoom out to include more people also wearing Nike apparel, and playing on a neighborhood

field. The beginning face is a person of color, and as it zooms out it includes other white and

brown faces. They already manage to include males of seemingly European, African, and Latin

descent, just five seconds into the advertisement. They encourage diversity in their consumers by

showing that people of all ethnicities enjoy their products. Along with a variety of ethnicities, the

actors represent different nationalities and languages. The actors in the advertisement speak with

non-American accents throughout the film, and some even speak with their native tongue. This is

impressive because Nike is an American brand, yet they manage to branch out far beyond an

American audience.
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Nike then, allows its young male audience to relate to their idolized football players by

merging them with boys like themselves. At about fifteen seconds they introduce professional

football players; first, they introduce Cristiano Renaldo, and secondly, Neymar Jr. These two

players are some of the most famous and idolized by young males. They allow these faces of

professional male football players to mix with the young, non-professional athletes. They all play

a game of pick-up together in this common neighborhood scene. Mixing the professionals with

these average players creates a sense of humility to the famous athletes. It also creates a

common-link between all of them, which is soccer. This makes the position of famous football

players seem more attainable and reminds the audience that notable professionals started out

average, just like them.

The advertisement also plays on an idea of masculinity in association with sex appeal to

women. In it, Cristiano Ronaldo scores a goal and teases one of the kids to which the kid

responds “So, I have 50,000 fans screaming my name.” The scene then changes to a stadium, and

Cristiano Ronaldo says “But, not her!” and points at his then, supermodel girlfriend, who blows a

kiss at the camera. A classic advertising move, the idea that buying a product and becoming

successful because of it, will lead you to an attractive woman.

Just after the rhetoric of sex appeal, a central place for advertising in the film occurs

when the kid responds to Cristiano Renaldo’s remark by saying “Well, I’ve got boots that aren’t

even out yet!”, then points down to his cleats to flash a new pair Nike was soon to release.

Cristiano responds by pointing at his which happens to be another new pair. This was intended to

show off the brand new pairs of cleats Nike made, as they were about to be released to the

public. This creates public demand for the new cleats, Nike Magista, Nike Hypervenom, and

Nike Mercurial. Who wouldn't want to wear the same shoes as their idol? Putting the shoes on a

famous athlete only makes them more desirable.

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As for the use of humor, it is abundant throughout the film. One of the players shouts

“David Luiz!” to turn into the said athlete. Then there happens to be another David Luiz on the

field who tells him “You don’t look like David Luiz. That's an ugly wig.” This is a place they

aim to make the viewers laugh because David Luiz’s hair is one of his signature traits. Then, the

game continues and one of the youths shouts “Inesto!”; Mispronouncing the intended player's

name, he turns into a mailman. Then all of the actors laugh. Another success in humor is made

when a player attempts to summon “Hulk!”, a professional football player, and ends up turning

into The Incredible Hulk. These are all fun additions of humor that may help the viewer retain

the commercial in their memory.

This commercial relies on primarily ethos and pathos. “Nike added to this impressive cast

in “Winner Stays”, which includes Zlatan Ibrahimović, Gerard Piqué, Gonzalo Higuaín, Mario

Götze, Eden Hazard, Thiago Silva, Andrea Pirlo, David Luiz, Andrés Iniesta, Thibaut Courtois,

and Tim Howard. Kobe Bryant, Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Irina Shayk, and The Incredible Hulk

also make guest appearances in this high-stakes game of pick-up soccer” (McIntrye). This gains

the attention of viewers by drawing in fans. Along with football fans, Nike managed to bring in

Basketball fans, UFC fans, Marvel Fans, and anyone drawn to supermodel, Irina Shayk. The

music playing throughout plays into the use of pathos. The music is very tense and imposes a

racy feeling on the viewers. This livens the ad with the theme of action and risk-taking. It also

creates a slight feeling of suspense to engage the audience.

Unfortunately, the advertiser must hope the audience will overlook the lack of female

representation. Without female representation, it seems they are only advertising to males. The

only scene where a female face takes the attention of the screen is when Irina Shayk comes on.

In this scene, she is hypersexualized with a red, cleavage exposing top, as she blows a kiss to the

camera. Not only is she sexualized, but she is treated as a trophy. In response to the kid

bragging/validating his worth by saying he has 50,000 fans screaming his name, Cristiano

Renaldo points to her as his counter-argument. This makes it seem as though she is just
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something to obtain. Other than Irina Shayk, the only women shown are vaguely mixed into the

crowds. This gives off a message that women are not meant to be idolized in sports. It also says

something about their audience. It goes to say that young boys/men can’t deal with women in

sports or that it would lose their attention if they were brought into the ad.

Despite a lack of female representation, the advertisement gained strong attention directly

after its release; “The film, which was launched last week, is the second installment of Nike’s

"risk everything" campaign. The global TV spot was created by Wieden & Kennedy Portland

and has been shared 717,0006 times in the past week” (Ridley). Directing it into a top position in

the Campaign Viral Chart, as the most-shared branded video (Ridley). About a month after the

Nike/Risk Everything campaign aired, Nike sales went up a great deal. “For the Nike brand

alone, revenue again rose 13 percent to $7bn (£4.1bn). Nike ramped up spend on marketing in

the period, spearheaded by its Risk Everything campaign featuring brand ambassadors Wayne

Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Neymar Jr, ahead of the start of the World Cup in Brazil. The

company did not strip out marketing spend but did say that a 36 percent increase in ‘demand

creation’ expenses was driven by marketing support” (Parsons). This is evidence that the

advertisement did what it was meant to do, increase sales. There seems to be a huge success rate

stemming from this Risk Everything campaign.

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Works Cited

McIntrye, Ashley. "Winner stays on: Nike releases second film as part of “Risk Everything”

ads.” Soccer.com, 25 Apr. 2014,

https://www.soccer.com/guide/winner-stays-on-nike-relseases-second-film-as-part-of-ris

K-everything. Accessed 23 Sep. 2019.

“Nike's marketing costs soar on World Cup.” BBC, BBC, 27 Jun. 2014,
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-28051656. Accessed 25 Sep. 2019.

Parsons, Russell. “Nike hails World Cup marketing campaign as revenue spikes.”

MarketingWeek, 27 Jun. 2014,

https://www.marketingweek.com/nike-hails-world-cup-marketing-campaign-as-revenue-

spikes/. Accessed 23 Sep. 2019.

Ridley, Louise. “Campaign Viral Chart: Nike 'winner stays' enters in top position.” Campaign,

02

May 2014,

https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/campaign-viral-chart-nike-winner-stays-enters-to

p-position/1292721. Accessed 23 Sep. 2019.