Reebok is rolling out a $30 million multimedia marketing campaign around the tagline, “Run Easy”. Marketers for the sports shoe company are aligning their product with having fun as opposed to the ‘no pain no gain’ approach taken by Nike.
Posters show athletes punishing themselves and encourage viewers to ask serious questions about what they are trying to achieve. One of the poster ads takes direct aim at Nike’s aggressive “Just Do It” marketing mantra with the image of a runner near collapse and the message: “What are you just doing? Run easy.”
“We didn’t want to put our brand where other competitors are,” says Marketing chief Uli Becker. “The marketing paradigm of the past where elite performance speaks to consumers is not the reality anymore.”
Credits
The Run Easy campaign was developed at McGarryBowen and 180 Amsterdam by executive creative director Warren Eakins, executive creative director/copywriter Randy Van Kleeck, art director Matt Even, producer Alexia Politis, photographer John Huet.
For many people, exercise does not come easily. If the most popular excuse to avoid running is that it’s “so hard”, then it makes sense to advocate gentle exertion. But what I really want to know is if the current ad actually has the words “great boobs” in the script? It certainly sounds like it, and I find it’s a bit misogynistic to put that on the air.