Sarah Glover of Leagas Delaney: my MAA blast from the past – Nike’s ‘The Morning After’

Living this new way of life, my blast from the past is the Y2K spot from Nike, ‘The Morning After.’ A man wakes up hungover on 1 Jan, 2000 and goes for a run as the world around him unravels. A brazen joke about Y2K, that aired 2 months before the potential scare. Back in 1999, a few people called them out for being irresponsible, but not many. I believe Nike aired it because nothing bad was going to happen since nothing devastatingly bad had happened in the US during that generation. I loved it then. Loved the boldness and irreverent humour.

To state the obvious, times have changed. Now, 20 years later, nothing like this spot can run again. Definitely not before something potentially might happen. Because we now live in a world where if something bad might happen, it’s going to happen.”

Sarah Glover is creative director at Leagas Delaney.