Just do it. If you've lived on planet Earth for more than 10 minutes (okay, maybe 10 years), those three words are more than the linguistic sum of their parts. They are synonymous with a brand that evokes images of sports' greatest moments and personalities—and of spectacular corporate success.
Jason White was 11 when Nike launched the simple new slogan that would change advertising forever. While most young boys watching those commercials wanted to grow up to be like the elite athletes in them, White wanted to become the brains behind them.
It was a gigantic dream, especially for an Afro‐Latino kid with no connections in the lily‐white ad world. But he would achieve it at warp speed, and Just do it could easily be the tagline for his career.
Not yet 30, he didn't hesitate when he was asked to launch Nike's ad agency Wieden+Kennedy, in Shanghai. He would be a managing director by 34 and, under his leadership, it was named China's 2012 Independent Advertising Agency of the Year.
Too young to sit still, even when he had a key seat at the table of his dreams, in 2014, White joined Beats by Dre, where he quickly rose to EVP, overseeing all marketing for the brand globally. Then, in a head‐scratching move, he became CMO at Massachusetts‐based Curaleaf, one of the largest cannabis companies in the world, before being named ...
