Letterman lauds Nike’s Lance ad

Nike won some spontaneous, unpaid placement—the best kind—on CBS’s The Late Show With David Letterman early this morning during Letterman’s interview with Nike athlete Lance Armstrong. (Even members of Wieden + Kennedy’s Nike team said they were unaware it had happened and had missed it.) Having concluded a lengthy discussion about Armstrong’s seventh Tour de France victory and his desire to spend more time with his family, Letterman showed a close-up of a Sports Illustrated cover featuring Armstrong, then flipped to the back cover, where Nike had placed a magazine-size version of the ad shown here—showing Armstrong in late 1996, in the depths of his battle with cancer. Letterman, obviously moved more by the ad than the cover, lauded it as the real deal; Armstrong said he’d approved the shot because it was the kind of image he wanted everyone to see.

—Posted by Gregory Solman

August 2, 2005 | Permalink