THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509220071
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
THE BRIGHT-EYED girls fill the TV screen.
``If you let me play sports, I will like myself more.''
One girl, perhaps 12, pitches a ball, saying, ``I will have more self-confidence.''
More chime in: ``If you let me play, I will be 60 percent less likely to develop breast cancer.''
A third, maybe 11 and smiling almost triumphantly, emphasizes, ``I will be more likely to leave a man who beats me.''
These faces power a 30-second Nike ad that debuted last month. Both endearing and edgy, ``If You Let Me Play'' puts statistics from the Women's Sports Foundation to work in a powerful montage.
``It's aimed more at adults, particularly parents,'' said Liz Dolan, Nike vice president of marketing.
The Oregon athletic-shoe giant and ad agency Wieden and Kennedy looked to rock-video director Samuel Bayer (Nirvana's ``Smells Like Teen Spirit'') to bring their in-your-face conception to American living rooms.
``We've done a lot of spots about how much fun sports are for girls,'' Dolan said, ``stressing fun, athleticism and competition. With girls, we just felt that showing them having fun wasn't quite enough. We really wanted to provoke adults to think about whether their daughters are physically as strong as their sons.
``We had the information staring us in the face, so we said, `Why don't we just state the facts?' Our intention was to be provocative; we wanted adults to think. The big breakthrough came when our agency said, it would be really arresting if you had the girls themselves saying these things.''
Nike's strategy includes trying to hook football-watching dads, said Dolan.
``Girls are less likely to have their dads take them out into the yard and show them how to play catch. Particularly, fathers are the ones in a position to teach their daughters to play. Mothers want that for their daughters, but they're not in a position to do it. I have two nieces who are 9 and 13, and this is just a natural part of their lives. It's the parents (who) need just a little bit of incentive.''
Dr. Mel Williams of ODU's Human Resources Laboratory agrees with the ad, citing studies of exercise physiology and cancer.
Women who play, he says, have less body fat. ``And if you keep your body-fat levels low, your estrogen level is probably lower. Some people suggest that keeping the body-fat levels low helps prevent cancer.''
Dolan said that ``If You Let Me Play'' points to a cultural change in acceptance and encouragement of female athletics.
``The statistics are the good news, and there is lots of good news. Before Title IX,'' the law equalizing female and male school sports funding ``one in 27 girls participated in a team sport. Now it's one in three.''
``Girls will try a lot of sports,'' said Williams, ``and if they don't do well in one, they'll eventually find one they can play.''
And then there's the matter of footwear.
``As a company, we're about participation in sports,'' said Nike's Dolan. ``Our ads have shown a very broad range of people playing the sports that they love. Sometimes you see something else, but it's not about selling a particular shoe. We want to get people interested in playing.
``Then,'' she added with a laugh, ``if everyone takes an interest, they have to buy the shoes.'' by CNB