Just Do It (launch spot, "Walt Stack")

Why it works

Three words that outgrew sport. Dan Wieden wrote "Just Do It" in 1988 as a connecting device for a batch of otherwise unrelated Nike commercials, adapting the reported last words of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore before his 1977 execution — "Let's do it" — because the phrase's defiance in the face of an unwinnable moment struck him; he has told the story on the record, including to Dezeen. Nike co-founder Phil Knight's first reaction was "We don't need that shit." The launch spot is deliberately anti-heroic: 80-year-old distance runner Walt Stack crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at dawn, joking that he keeps his teeth from chattering by leaving them in his locker. It is studied for how a tagline can carry a brand's entire philosophy — effort over equipment, anyone's body, no excuses — and for the discipline of launching a universal idea with an ordinary athlete rather than a star. Ad Age ranked the campaign No. 4 among the top 100 campaigns of the 20th century.