NIKE | BEAUTIFUL | 2000
In 2000, the title alone says it all / NIKE "BEAUTIFUL"
This NIKE ad is from 2000. The title is "BEAUTIFUL." Somehow, that title alone already tells you something.
The idea
The ad features athletes covered in battle scars: a wrestler's cauliflower ears, a surfer's body marked by shark bite scars. Director Frank Budgen slowly follows these wounds with the camera, while Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful" plays. Scars that should look painful are lined up and shown as, true to the title, "beautiful."
What happened
Records show it won GOLD, though I couldn't confirm which award exactly. Around 2000, NIKE also won an Emmy, so this was clearly the golden age of their partnership with W+K.
Afterthought
The fact that so little information remains about this ad somehow feels true to the era—the year 2000. Digital archives weren't really set up yet, but the ad definitely existed, and it stayed in someone's memory. I want to believe in the sensibility of whoever named this ad "BEAUTIFUL," fleeting as that feeling is.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2000
