Be More Human

Read the campaign story

Reebok announced Be More Human on 28 January 2015, with Venables Bell & Partners and a launch film directed by AG Rojas. The brand release framed fitness through everyday people and broader personal potential. Those are campaign claims, not evidence that a particular exercise programme improves every aspect of someone’s life or makes one person more human than another.

The 2016 extension 25,915 Days used a reverse life story and a digital participation element. Contemporary reporting identifies Venables Bell & Partners, while director Michael Lawrence’s portfolio credits Epoch Films and cinematographer Mathieu Plainfossé. The numerical premise is a creative framing, not a personal lifespan prediction. Both years belong to one platform; no clinical benefit or attributable sales effect is asserted.

Editorial interpretation: reversing a life story can shift attention from performance at a single moment to the accumulation of ordinary experiences. That broadens the category’s emotional relevance beyond competition. Yet it can also make time feel scarce in a way that pressures the viewer. A useful adaptation should invite reflection on personally meaningful activity without implying that rest, disability, age or a different relationship with exercise represents a lesser life.

Editorial interpretation: the central strategic tension is between encouragement and judgement. An aspirational brand can help people imagine possibilities, but a universal standard of human potential can become exclusionary. Teams should examine the implied comparison as carefully as the explicit wording. Does the message respect different circumstances and choices, or does it make the audience feel inadequate so that the product appears to offer moral improvement?

Test the implied standard of success

Ask reviewers what kind of person the campaign appears to admire and who might feel excluded. Include people with different relationships to the category without requesting sensitive personal histories. A message can be technically inclusive while its imagery rewards only intensity or exceptional performance. Revise the creative if ordinary participation, adaptation or choosing not to participate is treated as a failure.

Use time as context rather than a threat

A life-stage narrative can be meaningful without calculating how much life a viewer supposedly has left. Avoid collecting birth dates for dramatic countdowns or presenting population averages as individual forecasts. Consider stories about chosen priorities, learning or small moments instead. The emotional objective should be perspective, not anxiety that pressures someone toward a purchase or an activity beyond their comfort and capability.

Separate inspiration from health advice

Keep the campaign’s role distinct from personalised exercise or medical guidance. Do not suggest that using the product guarantees mental, social or physical transformation. Where practical activity information is offered, use qualified review and clear limits. Evaluate whether the message is understood and respectful before asking whether it motivates action; higher intention is not a success if it rests on misleading or harmful expectations.

A small test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: create a short story about an adult’s self-chosen, low-pressure hobby across several moments, comparing a reflective version with a straightforward invitation to learn more.

Measure understanding, perceived encouragement and any feelings of pressure or exclusion. Ask whether viewers infer unsupported health benefits. Do not measure success through exercise intensity, distress or disclosure of private medical information.

Stop if viewers interpret the story as a mortality warning, a judgement of human worth or a promise that purchasing or participating will resolve health or psychological difficulties.

• Use fictional or explicitly permissioned stories without collecting health details or dates of birth.
• Include rest and alternative forms of participation, avoiding extreme exertion or body comparison.
• Provide an optional information route without urgency, countdowns or personalised prescriptions.