Nike, Coke ring in the New Year with call to fitness ads

NEW YORK -- Getting in shape is the perennial New Year's resolution that brings a surge in ads for Weight Watchers, gym memberships and fad diets. Joining them in ringing in the new year with a call to fitness will be Nike and Coke.

"We're kicking it off big around New Year's because that is when the sponsorship starts, and we're concentrating on the fact that it's a great time for resolutions," says Greg Downey, group director of entertainment marketing for Coke North America.

Throughout MTV's Tila Tequila's New Year's Eve Masquerade 2008, Nike will air a 60-second ad with U.S. Paralympics basketball player Matt Scott. He sits in an empty gym bouncing two basketballs powerfully while rattling off excuses people use to duck workouts, such as "I can't right now," and "I'm tired."

"If you don't find this inspirational then you better check for a pulse," says Nike spokesman Dean Stoyer.

"There's no better way to deliver an inspiring message of health and fitness for the new year to the youth of America than through MTV," Stoyer says. "These are the days when commitments toward a healthier lifestyle are most often made and subsequently broken. Nike is hoping to change that tradition."

Also trying to do that — at least through January — will be a giant Nike billboard going up Monday in Manhattan. Its motivational messages will change throughout the month. The first: "Yesterday you said tomorrow."