Creative Critical Reflection Blog

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues? 

Nike shoes do challenge conventions. They use very diverse actors in all their advertisements, especially stereotypes you do not often see in running/physical activity commercials. This includes women, cultures such as Muslims, disabled individuals, and plus-sized models. Nike is one of the biggest footwear brands internationally, and with billions of loyal shoppers, they make shoes for just about anyone. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been rough for many businesses. Surprisingly, this includes Nike as well. Even though they were struggling as a brand through the pandemic, they came out stronger than ever, and have committed $30 million to Covid-19 response efforts around the world. Nike published the following statement on their official website, “We’re using innovation to help. Working closely with health professionals at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Nike’s innovation, manufacturing, and product teams have come together to provide for an urgent need: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the form of full-face shields and powered, air-purifying respirator (PAPR) lenses to protect against the coronavirus (COVID-19). Nike donated full-face shields and PAPR lenses to health systems across Oregon, along with health systems in the greater Boston, Memphis, Tenn., and St. Louis areas. We also made a donation to health systems in Cleveland, Ohio, near the home of Lubrizol, which generously donated its ESTANE® thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) polymers to support the manufacturing of this PPE.

 2 . How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

To engage with audiences, Nike spreads their content across many social media platforms including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and most recently, TikTok. On Instagram, Nike has many accounts including, @nike, @nikewomen, @nikesportswear, @nikebasketball, @nikesb (skateboarding), @nikerunning, @nikegolf, and @nikediamond. The one relating most to our product is @nikerunning, on this account, you can find images of shoes, inspirational quotes, running videos, and pictures of runners in Nike shoes. On Twitter, there is no running specific account, so the one most relating to our product is @nike. On this page, you can find collages of Nike runners, reposts of their commercial advertisements, and photos of their runners. On Facebook, Nike mostly post photos of their higher profile and more famous athletes with their backstory and them in Nike gear. On Tiktok, they post mainly their athletes doing cool tricks, then teaching the audience how they can do these tricks too. To distribute real media texts, Nike produces and airs commercials worldwide on YouTube and cable television.

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project? 

This was my first time filming and creating a piece of media, so as expected, I was not very good at the beginning. As my partner and I advanced in this project, we were able to get the hang of some filming techniques to make our filming easier, and more easily reach new angles and methods of filming. One of these included the tracking shot. Since we had no professional equipment, it was difficult for us to film this shot. This took many tries with a lot of trial and error. We finally worked it out to where the camera was upside down and I had to run backward beside my partner while she ran very slow. Hopefully, in the next project, my skills will improve even more to create better quality media overall.

4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? 

For the filming aspect, we used my partner’s iPhone 12 Pro to record our clips. After we were done filming, I used the software application iMovie to edit my clips. This was a very good application and combined my clips seamlessly. To get the background music, I used the applications Spotify and YouTube. These were both easy to use and are accessible to almost everyone. These applications were all necessities to the process that led to the final product. We also used the desktop application Blogger to organize our thought and processes. This was essential to help keep our ideas on track and fresh. The final necessary application is Canvas online or the “Student” application on cellular devices. This helped keep us on track also, with deadlines and filming tips.