Permission to Fail

Many consider this to be the greatest Nike ad of all time.

It hits as hard today as it did back in 1997.

When it launched, it was an anomaly. Sports advertising worshipped athletes. It portrayed them as if they were gods.

Gods who were absent of fear. Absent of weakness. Absent of failure.

Nike realized this glorification made athletes unrelatable.

So what did they do?

They had the greatest athlete in the world recite his failures.

Failure

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.

“I’ve lost almost 300 games.

“26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot. And missed.

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Jordan’s confession was written by the late Jim Riswold, the legendary Wieden+Kennedy creative director.

The Nike Failure commercial was so much more than a commercial.

It gave everyone permission to try without the fear of failure.