For the 30th Anniversary of “Just Do it,” Nike celebrated athletes and their crazy dreams. The campaign was led by Colin Kaepernick, the controversial NFL quarterback who sacrificed his dream for a bigger one when he knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality. While some launched a boycott against the Nike and burned their shoes, millions came to the brand’s defense and praised the campaign for being on “the right side of history”. This wasn’t just about a brand doing the right thing for its bottom line, it was about a brand doing the right thing. Period.

For the 30th Anniversary of “Just Do It”, Nike wanted to inspire a new generation of young athletes and youth overall to realize their potential through sport. Nike, the number one sports brand, wanted to bring to life its iconic idea and line, “Just Do It” in a fresh way, relevant to youth athletes as well as culture at large.

The “Dream Crazy” campaign celebrates inspirational athletes that have pushed their sports (and sometimes the world) forward, from household names like Serena Williams and Lebron James, to a girl who dreamed of playing linebacker on a high-school football team. The campaign was led by Colin Kaepernick, the controversial NFL quarterback who sacrificed his dream for an even bigger one when he knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality. This wasn’t just about a brand doing the right thing for its bottom line, it was about a brand doing the right thing. Period.

To inspire the next generation of athletes to “dream crazy”, we celebrated real athletes that have ignored conventional thinking and as a result have pushed the world forward. And because no athlete has dreamed crazier than Colin Kaepernick, we made him the face of the entire campaign.

The campaign started with a tweet from Colin Kaepernick, before we launched a 2-minute film during the opening of the NFL season. Voiced by Kaepernick, the film encouraged a new generation of athletes to “dream crazy” by celebrating athletes that ignored convention and pushed their sports forward including Serena Williams, Shaquem Griffin, Lacey Baker, Isaiah Bird and more. We then blanketed major cities with billboards and posters celebrating those athletes, including location-specific executions. For example, a Colin Kaepernick billboard was placed in San Francisco, while a Serena Williams billboard was erected in Compton, California (her hometown).

The campaign immediately ignited debate across the country and throughout the world. But while some people and news networks launched a boycott against the Nike and burned their shoes, millions came to the brand’s defense and praised the campaign for being on “the right side of history”. The campaign saw Nike’s stock price rise to an all-time high and created $6 billion in brand value, making it the most successful campaign in the brand’s history.