There’s an excellent article in the NY Times today called The New Advertising Outlet: Your Life. A particular focus is placed on Nike’s evolving approach to advertising, and a few of the key quotes include:

“We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive,” Mr. Edwards says he tells many media executives. “We’re in the business of connecting with consumers.”

“We think Michael Jordan will make a comeback again soon, which may or may not involve Kevin Bacon in some way.”

“We want to find a way to enhance the experience and services, rather than looking for a way to interrupt people from getting to where they want to go,” said Stefan Olander, global director for brand connections at Nike. “How can we provide a service that the consumer goes, ‘Wow, you really made this easier for me’?”

Do you think we could convince Tiger Woods to play hockey?

“We don’t automatically think about television anymore,” said Joaquin Hidalgo, vice president for global brand marketing at Nike. “There was a time when brands like Nike could tell kids through the medium of television what was cool, what was in, what was not in, because that was the only window they had into the world. That has completely changed now.”

Ok - I made two of those up, but the other three come from the article. Along with references to runners connecting with each other through the Nike site (3 times a week, so Nike doesn’t have to go to them), to Nike dropping the proportion of their Ad spend going to traditional media over the last 10 years (55% to 33%), it’s really quite a development - particularly since Nike ads for athletes were a big part of the sports culture a decade ago.

And just for fun: the link to the Ronaldinho “commercial” that Nike only released for free on the web. Even if you don’t like football (soccer), you can probably appreciate what he does in this… even if he can’t score a single goal.