This is a Nike ad for women’s running shoes featuring Lauren Fleshman, an American world champion long distance runner. This is a very powerful and striking ad for many reasons. The first thing that grabs your attention is the bolded, black words saying “Objectify Me”. This term “objectifying” normally has a negative connotation in our society, so it seems very strange for the female in the ad to be requesting such a thing. This leads us to be very curious and want to read further.
Personally, most ads that have too many words lose my attention and I don’t normally take the time to read it all. Yet, with such a controversial statement on this ad, it brings about curiosity to read further, and we see how Lauren justifies why she would want to be objectified and what she means by that. She wants to be objectified in the sense that she trusts Nike and their research to design a product based on her needs as a female athlete, which are completely different from those of a male. In the brief description we see how Nike incorporates a successful athlete’s story to their mission, research and product.
This is clearly an ad that is a few years older, because a company like Nike, similar to Apple, has evolved to more straightforward and simple ads in the present day. Although, the black and white theme used in this particular ad gives a powerful effect by simplifying it and brining all the attention to main female in the image. The spacing element is very important here; Lauren is standing completely alone and the blurred background brings her into the main focus of the image. Her dominating stance gives us the message of her confidence and strength as a female athlete. This is a great ad for female empowerment, since we so often see skinny, unhealthy models in advertisements today. This ad shows a fit and healthy woman, which is Nike telling us what they support and stand for, beyond being an athletic shoe and apparel brand.
Visual literacy 