Ranking Michael Jordan’s 11 most iconic commercials of all-time
By Titan Frey
10. Gatorade: Challenge (1997)
Moving on into the top 10 of this list, we’ll look at Gatorade’s “Challenge” commercial. It’s a simple yet effective commercial showing Jordan sitting with Gatorade pouring off him like sweat.
The music that plays as you watch Jordan can make the hair stick up on your arms, as it is an inspiring commercial. Does it make you want to drink Gatorade?
After seeing the Gatorade slogan, “Is it in you?” I’d say it makes me want to grab a bottle of Gatorade.
Gatorade and Nike consistently ran some of the greatest ads in sports history with Michael Jordan.
9. Nike: Banned (1985)
This 1985 Nike commercial, which was titled “Banned” is what led to Nike and its Air Jordan line finding massive success. The commercial shows Jordan bouncing a basketball and tossing it back and forth through his hands.
The G.O.A.T. doesn’t speak, but he doesn’t need to. A narrator then tells the audience about the Air Jordan I shoes getting banned by the NBA.
Black blocks cover shoes, which continues to push Nike’s message of Jordan’s shoes being banned by the NBA. The reason the shoes were banned was because they didn’t have white in them, and NBA shoes worn by players at the time were required to be 50% white.
This was the perfect anti-establishment message by Nike, and guess what? It worked. What makes this even crazier is the shoe Jordan wore that resulted in the NBA stepping in wasn’t even the original Air Jordan shoe, but the Nike Air Ship.
Jordan wore the Air Ship in a preseason game, but that didn’t matter. The ad campaign by Nike worked as the company, along with the Jordan Brand, are among the top of the shoe market, and that won’t change for the foreseeable future.