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19-SEP-2025 | Nike’s “How to break through the wall” Ad

Author

Dan Bogachek
September 19, 2025

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Nike’s “How to break through the wall” Ad

Only a million people worldwide run a marathon every year.

So if this isn’t an example of targeted advertising — what is?

How to break through the wall.

Every marathoner knows about “the wall.” You hit it at 20 miles. With six miles to go, the glycogen that feeds your muscles runs out.

Dehydration sets in. You lose blood volume. Some marathoners develop parthesia. Toes tingle. You feel nauseous, dizzy.

Some people try to break through the wall by dissociating — concentrating on other things. Some repeat mantras or do mental math. Others “listen” to rock or Bach.

A few world class runners find it’s actually better to concentrate on the pain itself.

But no matter how you deal with it, the wall is pure pain.

We can’t say Nike shoes will make that pain disappear. But we can say this:

Your legs and feet will probably feel a lot better wearing a pair of Nike Elites.

We build them especially for marathoning. The Elite nylon uppers have no seams to constrict your toes and cause blisters.

They weigh only 240 grams.

We designed the Nike Elites to give you more help in breaking through the wall than any racing shoe in the world.

But they can in no way do it all.

Nobody but you can do that. 🏁 

The majority of the ad focuses on pain. Heck, they’re even talking about constricting toes and blisters in the ‘how’ part.

If the reader isn’t in pain, are you even selling?

Twist the knife!