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The Marketing Problem: Reebok contacted Lois to do a promotion for shopping malls to attract consumers to buy its "Pump" athletic shoe (Lois and Pitts, 1991, p.188-189). After some research, Lois concluded that the Pump was a great product but that people buying athletic shoes dimly understood its "technology". Many potential buyers even thought that it was made by Nike not Reebok and saw the Pump as a gimmick made for youngsters trying to look cool. Consumers did not know the shoe supported and protected the feet of athletes. Lois knew that the Pump had to be reintroduced almost as a new product before a promotion to attract malls shoppers could be done.
The Big Idea: Reebok agreed to revamp the Pump's image (Lois and Pitts, 1991, p.189-190). Lois' work for Reebok did not show star athletes in action, but used them to talk sense to the public. The commercials differed from Nike's advertisements which were based on showing footage of Michael "Air" Jordan and Bo "Bo knows" Jackson playing ball. The Pump advertisements featured big athletes like Dominique Wilkins and Boomer Esiason telling the audience why they wear the Pump and compared it to Nike's shoes. At the same time, they made fun of Jordan and Jackson. The slogan summing up this campaign was, "Pump up and Air Out!"
An advertisement from this campaign is shown above. It argues that the Pump is a great performance shoe superior to Nike's (Lois and Pitts, 1991, p.189-190). Using a locker room to shoot the campaign provided a compelling setting where each athlete could chant his rallying cry. Comments Lois: "Sports fans loved these spots because they challenged Nike symbolism while the Reebok athletes charmingly delivered their straight-on lines without jumping through hoops." In each commercial, the athlete throws away a Nike shoe, a vivid imagery for the campaign's slogan, "Pump up and Air out!" This tag line became part of the language and a rallying cry for shoppers of athletic shoes (Lois and Pitts, 1991, p.190). The spots in the Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournament helped change the public's and athlete's attitude toward the Pump. Eventually, sales of this shoe jumped. Like the Xerox campaign, Lois' Big Idea had helped reintroduced an athletic product.
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