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Nike: Celebrity Advertising

Back before the Swoosh logo and long before the days the company was called Nike, there was Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS). It was the company Phil Knight, the founder, and legendary track coach Bill Bowerman created in 1964 to provide athletes with better shoes. Their first year sales totaled around $8,000. It wasn’t until 1971 that BRS introduced the concept of the Greek winged Goddess of victory— Nike. Well-knownlogo appears on the famous red shirts, Nike is the international empire today. By using famous athletes to endorse Nike's products, Knight has been able to expand into many different sports. In 1974 Jimmy Connors collected his Wimbledon trophy wearing Nike shoes. Carl Lewis jumped and ran in Nike shoes to win four gold medals at the 1984 LA Olympics. In 1995 Nike signed a contract with the racing driver, Michael Schumacher. At the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 Michael Johnson won the gold medal in the 400 metres wearing his now famous Nike gold shoes.

Nike's mission is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. Knight himself says his number one advertising principle is to wake up the consumer, and Nike's adverts are daring and attention grabbing. One example is the advert of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi playing tennis in the streets of Manhattan.

Nike created a powerful image around the basketball player Michael Jordan. He became a superstar, and it was his image as part of the Dream Team, which helped the company to become world-famous. In 1997 Tiger Woods won the US Masters and Nike moved into another sport – golf. I n 2000 the company signed a 300 million deal with Manchester United, which has 50 million fans worldwide.

Sportswear giant, Nike expanded its celebrity-advertising list to include hiphop artist, Nelly. In 2003, Nike released 1,000 pairs of the rapper’s $120 limited edition Air Derrty sneaker. The sneakers reportedly sold out within hours.

Today, Nike's unmistakable trademark 'swoosh' is instantly recognisable on sports shoes and clothing the world over, and celebrity advertising has certainly been crucial to this global success. For the fiscal year ending May 31, 2007, the company reported record revenues of $16.3 billion, a $1.3 billion increase over last year’s earnings.

Спасибо большое))

Найк создали сильный образ вокруг баскетболиста Майкла Джордана. Он стал суперзвездой, и этот его образ игрока Dream Team помог компании получить всемирную известность. В 1997 Тайгер Вудс выиграл турнир Masters в США, и Найк занялись очередным видом спорта: гольфом. В 2000 году компания подписала контракт на триста миллионов с Манчестер Юнайтед, фанатская база которых насчитывает 50 миллионов по всему миру.

Пожалуйста. Вот вам еще один абзац :) Но это последний.