The work, titled Stairs, is part of the brand’s Winning Isn’t Comfortable campaign targeting runners.
A new Nike ad titled Stairs portrays a range of scenes that competitive runners will instantly recognize — people limping down stairs and across streets, bracing themselves against handrails and trash cans, and struggling to sit down.
Experienced viewers will likely immediately recognize this illustration of the post-marathon gait, wherein one’s legs are too tired from the 26.2 miles they ran the day prior to properly function.
For viewers who haven’t felt the unique pain of walking down stairs after running a marathon, they’re clued in to the inspiration behind the creative about 20 seconds into the 30-second ad, when a man in a yellow taxi looks curiously out his window at one person ungracefully making his way down the stairs.
It turns out that his car’s radio station was playing Nazareth’s 1976 track “Love Hurts,” which concludes as the channel’s host dedicates the song to “everyone who ran the marathon yesterday — hope you’re doing okay out there.”
The spot ends with the slogan, “Winning isn’t comfortable,” linking it to Nike’s previous ads targeted at runners; both Morning and Sunshine, released last month, also show the pain and discomfort that runners experience.
Stairs was posted to YouTube on Monday and has increased its reach on X, formerly Twitter, with multiple posts of the campaign video notching hundreds of thousands of views each.
These campaigns all follow the launch of Nike’s Winning Isn’t for Everyone platform, created with agency partner Wieden + Kennedy, which debuted during the Olympics.
