Want Better Cities? Help Nike Sell Shoes
What if corporate advertising power could be leveraged for human-centered places?
“Machines save us so much work, they’ve actually put our bodies out of a job. They’re killing us.”
It’s the thesis of the 1978 “Man Vs. Machine” Nike campaign featuring a runner jogging alongside a busy four-lane bridge.
The ad’s primary job was to sell running shoes. But it takes a powerful stand - decades before concerns about AI, the “loneliness epidemic,” and health issues created by suburbanization, car dependency, and remote work - against car- and machine-centered living.
When we think of corporations’ relationship to urbanism, we typically think of big corporate headquarters and factories relocating to the suburb willing to hand out the best subsidy sweetheart deal.
Or worse, we remember the ways they often throw dollars and influence around to actively fight against gains in public amenities and the general welfare:
The Man Vs. Machine Nike ad is a reminder that corporate leverage, in all its complicated and often disenchanting nuances, can sometimes be a force for good. The recent Apple “The Greatest” campaign is an example of this:
So what would it look like to harness positive corporate advertising, lobbying, and general influence to advance better cities?
After all, a simple survey of the world’s largest companies (Amazon, Tesla, Saudi Aramco, etc.) doesn’t exactly teem with industries and verticals that are congruent with human-centered, walkable places.
This is one of the reasons it will be so paramount in 2023 and beyond to begin actively creating space for urbanism-adjacent industries, professionals, advocates, etc. to expand the citybuilding movement to its maximum potential. And that includes urbanism-adjacent companies and corporations.
Companies like Patagonia, whose advocacy and investment in climate initiatives has been well-documented, or like Nike itself, whose bottom line only stands to benefit from more people having access to safe places for walking, running, and other physical and athletic activity.
Just to imagine what it would look like for these companies to lock arms with those lobbying for dense and walkable places, I mocked up a few ads below:
Perhaps none of these ads directly shout “welcome to the war on cars.” But they throw some weight on the cultural scales in the direction of human-centered places. And they do so with resources that can reach the masses.
When you’re seeking to rebuild the vast majority of a continent’s built environment, that kind of firepower is a welcomed ally.
Corporate messaging is hardly a silver bullet for achieving a societal shift away from sprawl, auto-dependency, and disingenuous/misinformed climate concerns about density. But for urbanist ideals to go viral, they need to go mainstream.
And what better way to make urbanism cool at a party than through some of the world’s most famous brands?