This advertisement was made by the Nike Brand of Air Jordan in honor of the final season of Derek Jeter. It was sent out to the public around the time of the MLB All-Star Game in early July. Derek Jeter spent 20 seasons in the Major Leagues all with the New York Yankees and has become the face of baseball in the 21st century. He was known by baseball as a very humble leader, great shortstop, and an all-around well respected person. Nike felt that they should make an advertisement to memorialize Jeter's impact and legacy on the game of baseball. The ad is in black and white with a picture of his back to the camera showing his famous #2. Across the ad is big letters that say "RE2PECT."
The term "Re2pect" became a pop culture phenomenon and was put on t-shirts, hats, and baseball merchandise across the world. It's a clever play-on words that uses Derek Jeter's number as an "S" in the word "respect." The bigger picture to look at is that this word defines his baseball career in one simple word. No matter what baseball team you were a fan of or if you were a fan of baseball at all, you had to show respect for Derek Jeter. Put aside his 14 All-Star appearances, 5 championship rings, 5 gold glove awards, and many more achievements. Take a step back to admire his great character and humbleness through it all. "Respect" is just the perfect word to use when thinking about Jeter. A man to respect on and off the baseball diamond. Air Jordan was simply genius for coming up with this advertisement.
The intended audience for this ad is very broad. It can range from sports fans, people who wear the Jordan brand, baseball fans, or just fans of Derek Jeter. Anyone who has a knowledge of sports in general or those who have been alive to witness his entire career, should be able to understand the significance of the advertisement and how brilliant it is. Derek Jeter has not just been made an icon in sports by the media, but he has made himself that way with the kind of guy this is.
"Humility" is the best deadly sin to best describe the advertisement. Jordan wanted to create the ad to sum up Jeter's baseball career in the most modest and humble way possible, despite being the all-time great player that he is. The ad was very simple, yet genius at the same time. Jeter was known as a modest and humble guy and this is the way this ad was created.
Derek Jeter was a sponsor of Air Jordan throughout his career wearing Jordan baseball cleats every game. The ad was not created to showcase a particular product, but to simply show respect for the great one. Notice how the Jordan logo is printed very small in the corner of the ad, but the term "RE2PECT" and the image of Jeter in the background covers the entire page. That was the ad's main intention, focus more on the endorser of the product and not the brand itself.
This is a cool ad and I liked how you broke it down. Two things I noticed when i first saw it were that it is in black and white, and that the camera is focused on Jeter, blurring out everything in the background. The black and white really sets the mood of how serious the ad is, and also plays on the simplicity and humility of Derek Jeter. The camera focus has a similar affect, bringing all of the focus to Jeter. I feel like the term "respect" is also very fitting because of how respectful of a person/athlete Derek Jeter is himself. However, I definitely feel like one of the main purposes actually is to advertise a product. Although the Air Jordan logo is small and not in the center, it stands out because it is in focus in contrast to the background and the white stands out from the dark background. I think that if the only purpose of the ad were to show respect for Jeter, they would have left out the Air Jordan logo altogether.
ReplyDeleteHey Kap, I liked the ad you picked and your analysis, but let me drop a knowledge bomb on you real quick. Humility is not a deadly sin, but the exact opposite actually. Humility is the corresponding heavenly virtue that goes with pride, which means humility is something that one should strive for. But I do agree with you that Derek Jeter is the definition humility, which makes this ad difficult in terms of picking out a deadly sin. That being said, if I had to choose a deadly sin for this ad, it would actually be pride. Although I hold the same beliefs as you that Derek Jeter is a great man and athlete, one could argue that ads such as this blow him up larger than life, in a prideful way.
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