“McEnroe swears by them.” Nike tennis shoe ad
Contributed by Stephen Coles on Oct 25th, 2018. Artwork published in
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Source: fontid.co License: All Rights Reserved.
When John McEnroe appeared in Wimbledon in 1981, Nike ran this ad, poking fun at his tendency to curse on the court. Another version of the ad read, “McEnroe’s favorite four-letter word.” McEnroe went on to win Wimbledon that year.
Source: www.creativereview.co.uk License: All Rights Reserved.
October 1981, page 37 – the first time Nike appeared in Creative Review. It was a poster for tennis shoes from a student team at a now-long-dead agency called French Cruttenden Osborn. The copy read: “McEnroe swears by them”. As what we would now call a ‘challenger brand’ Nike was beginning to make a name for itself by sponsoring the athletes that made other brands nervous. Over the years this would become a deliberate tactic – Cantona, Ian Wright, Charles Barkley, Nike loved the bad boys of sport.
2 Comments on ““McEnroe swears by them.” Nike tennis shoe ad”
The headline typeface used is TFGrangeBlack and is available on treacyfaces.com along with the entire 16-variety TFGrange family. Note that there’s an entire series of italics now available. Use our groundbreaking interactive Treacyfaces Typesampler at treacyfaces.com and order at www.treacyfaces.com/TFGrang…. Thank you.
Hi Joe, thanks for chiming in! Yes, we do link to your digital TFGrange on our typeface page.
Can you tell us who’s the original designer of Grange Grotesk? The Headliners catalogs don’t always mention that kind of info. Thank you!