Brand of the Week: Nike Korea's Playground For All

We’re going to dedicate this week’s Brand of the Week to our brilliant Clara who has sadly finished her internship, but has been a constant source of inspiration throughout her time with us. So this week's piece will serve as an in-depth write up of her final piece of inspiration: Nike Korea’s Playground For All.

So what is this campaign about?

A bit of context first… Despite growing awareness and continuous challenging of gender norms across the world, there’s still a lot to do. This is no less true in Korea where many aspects of life is pre-determined by gender, including who is welcome to the playground. In Korea, this dedicated children’s space can be seen as a space for boys while girls are resorted to watching from the sidelines.

To challenge the imbalance of the playground, Nike created ‘Playground For All’; a campaign inviting everyone to take part in sports on the playground and in turn, reshape their experience of this space.

Nike placed a colourful space (a combination of a basketball court, football pitch, baseball diamond and a running track all into one) in the middle of Yongma Middle School with sign-posted rules such as ‘be ready to enjoy any sport’. The result was this: https://www.shots.net/news/view/come-and-play-at-nike-koreas-playground-for-all

What values does this campaign enable?

By emPowering girls (and everyone else who may be excluded) to take part in sport and get involved, Nike’s playground has become an inclusive space. The ad features boys and girls kicking around a ball and celebrating their successes. There’s no sense that people are judging each other – it’s all about getting involved together and creating a new type of playground, one where everyone is invited to and has influence over this process.

There’s no shortage of fun in the ad either, from the colourful space to the music to the activities the kids are taking part in. Sports is inherently competitive so what really stands out to me from this ad is that this is all about enjoying the sport – you see many smiles and laughs appearing throughout the ad – not keeping score and winning. This emphasised by one of the sign-posted rules: ‘seek progress not perfection’.

Thanks for reading and have a great week,

Emily