Nike Bo Knows 1989- The greatest of the Bo Knows commercials has to be - Bo, You Don't Know Diddley. The idea created by copywriter Jim Riswold came to him while at a local bar wrestling with ideas being thrown at him from patrons of the bar. Bo...Beau Brummell...Bo Derek...and then Bo Diddley, he knew Diddley was the one and then added You Don't Know Diddley and the cast of athletes.Jackson stuttered badly and didn't utter a single word in the commercial instead endoresements came from other famous athletes from Wayne Gretzky to Micheal Jordan. When Nike previewed the commercial to employees at a sales meeting they jumper to their feet in approval, Nike stopped all their running shoe advertising, doubled it's budget and put everything behind "Bo Knows".
Nike first aired the commercial on the day of the baseball all-star game, and what perfect timing too for Nike, it ran right after Jackson hit a home run in his first at bat after the fourth inning. Jim Riswold was quoting as saying God is a Bo Jackson fan while watching the game.
Nike didn't run the commercial again for 3 weeks after that but they got a ton of free exposure to it from news, talk shows, Entertainment Tonight and even The New Yorker in a cartoon claimed that Bo Knows Fiction.
What made this commercial great? Within months of running it, Nike grabbed 80 percent of the new cross-training market, sales at the time grew from $40 million to $400 million and very simply, it was a great commercial.
