In 1988 the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy gave Nike three words. They were “just do it.”
The first commercial showed no superstar. It showed Walt Stack, an 80-year-old runner, jogging across the Golden Gate Bridge. He joked that he kept his teeth in his locker so they would not chatter in the winter. Nike’s founder, Phil Knight, first said, “We don’t need that.”
From 1988 to 1998, Nike’s share of the North American sports-shoe business rose from 18 percent to 43 percent.