So one of the greatest lines in Advertising history is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this summer, Nike’s Just Do It. Awesome. And congrats to Nike and to Wieden & Kennedy.

When I was a marketing director at Miller Brewing back in the mid-nineties I had the pleasure of working with Dan Wieden and Dave Luhr and the rest of W+K Portland. At that time we were looking at re-introducing the phrase It’s Miller Time back into the American lexicon and we were debating where the line should be used, under what circumstances, and how often. My initial reaction was everywhere, in all cases, as often as possible. Dan Wieden then described how Just Do It is used, or more precisely, not used. “Only use a brand motto (that’s what they called Just Do It, it’s certainly not a slogan…) when you can give it meaning. Every use out of context, on say a t-shirt, subtracts value.” Or something like that. And then I realized I had never seen a t-shirt with the words Just Do It, or a hat or a bumper sticker. What does a bumper sticker have to do with authentic athletic performance? Nothing. In fact, he went on to point out that most Nike TV spots do not end with Just Do It. I said I didnt believe him and he showed me a reel of the greatest hits and only a handful actually ended with Just Do It. It was remarkable and made perfect sense. No wonder it has lasted so long.