Dan Wieden was an advertising executive who coined the iconic phrase “Just Do It’ for Nike.
- Died: Friday, September 30, 2022. (Who else died on September 30?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 77.
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“Just Do It”
Dan Wieden was a Portland native who worked as an advertising copywriter for McCann-Erickson. He and McCann-Erickson art director David Kennedy, left to work at William Cain whose client list included Phil Knight, the owner of Nike, a growing shoe company. The pair started their own agency, Wieden+Kennedy in 1982, taking Nike with them. Wieden+Kennedy’s creativity greatly grew the Nike brand. In 1988, Wieden himself came up with one of the most iconic tag lines in advertising, “Just Do It.” The duo also created the “Bo Knows” campaign and the “Mars Blackmon” campaign which featured director Spike Lee and Michael Jordan. Outside of Nike, they did the humorous “This is Sportscenter” spots for ESPN and a Honda scooters campaign featuring rock star Lou Reed and his song “Walk on the Wild Side.” Wieden was featured in the 2015 documentary “Art & Copy.”
Notable Quote
“We’re an advertising agency with a success story that makes no sense whatsoever.” With only four employees at first, “we started in the most ridiculous place you possibly could” — Portland, a small city a continent removed from Madison Avenue. “The only people that would ever consider moving to Portland,” he said, “were people that had been fired everywhere, or just kids right out of school.” – He said in a 2016 speech for Design Indaba
Tributes to Dan Wieden
Full Obituary: oregonlive.com
