We've all seen the Nike sneaker ads with the catch-phrase "Just do it!" But what I didn't know is that it first appeared in TV ads in 1988, long after the guy that said it had faced a firing squad in Utah. Gary Gilmore, 37 was executed January 17, 1977, for murdering two men, smoking gun literally in his left hand.
Dan Wieden of Wieden + Kennedy Advertising was asked by Nike to give them a tagline for five very different 30-second spots. And it popped into his mind. Gilmore's actual words were "Let's do it" and he changed it to "Just do it."
Gilmore was a man of my heart (except for the murdering thing.) After the ACLU got him two (unwanted) stays of execution, he said, "They always want to get in on the act. I don't they have ever done anything effective in their lives. I would like them all to just butt out. This is my life and my death." The ACLU's two stays did affect Gilmore. After both of them he attempted suicide. A man that liked his own way.
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Jay Simpson, a South Bay Writer's Workshop member, has a new past time - writing clever and funny "Ramblings." Here two recent ones.
Never borrow money from a leprechaun; they always come up a little short.
I don't like bookkeeping so you could say I have no taste for accounting.
act. I don't think
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