The Campaign

By reinventing bandages and turning them into the "Badge of Honor", we found the perfect way to change the perception of sport injuries and turned the humble bandage into a proud symbol. Drawing inspiration from comics, the different bandage shapes became the storytelling device - resonating with parents and kids alike by showcasing sports comeback stories. The comic characters became the voice: "When you play, play hard." The Badge of Honor became a product, a message, and a medium.

Creative Execution

The “Badge of Honor” was a series of specially designed bandages available for free after the purchase of Nike “Young Athlete” products at Nike retail stores in China. Four sets of 14 bandages were designed for basketball, running, football and skateboarding. They were packaged in specially designed sleeves that unfolded into comic strips that told fictional stories of young athletes who played hard, fell down and found the courage to get back up again. On the packages, we included links to animated versions of the stories we created, featuring Nike athlete cameos such as Su Bingtian, China’s best sprinter; Zhao Lina, the goalkeeper of the China Women’s football team; Zhang Guowei, popular high jumper; and Yi Jianlian, veteran basketball player.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

We created 100,000 boxes of bandages in total and distributed them to 103 Nike retail stores all over China. Kids received the bandages by either signing up for the Nike Kids Run event or purchasing Nike Young Athlete products. All 100,000 bandages packs were gone in the first week. The film animations received over 12.7 million views, while the campaign generated over 7 million conversations on social, and over 3,500 families joined the Nike Kids Run event in Shanghai.

After speaking to many kids and parents, we realized that the kids themselves could become our best spokespeople to show their parents the power of sport. All we needed to do was give them the tool to prove that they weren’t afraid of getting hurt, and that sports helps to build their confidence, courage and resilience – they will not only become better athletes, but also better person.