Dan Wieden, CEO, Wieden and Kennedy, is seen at the 2011AdColor Award Show on Saturday September 17, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California. Wieden died Friday, Sept. 30, 2022.
Vince Bucci / AP
Dan Wieden — co-founder of the Portland-based advertising company Wieden+Kennedy who coined the Nike tagline “Just Do It” — died Friday at the age of 77. The company announced his death on Saturday.
Wieden died peacefully in his home in Portland, according to an obituary posted in the Oregonian/OregonLive.
Wieden and his former business partner, David F. Kennedy, together founded one of the most famous advertising companies in the world. W+K became an advertising powerhouse, known for its iconic Nike campaigns, including the “Just Do It” commercials.
Dan Wieden, March 6, 1945-September 30, 2022.
— Wieden+Kennedy (@WiedenKennedy) October 1, 2022
Thank you Dan, for throwing the doors wide open for people to live up to their full potential.
We will miss you so much. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/SyPfYP5KeL
Wieden was born and raised in Portland, where he went to Grant High School. He graduated from University of Oregon with a degree in journalism, before he later got into public relations and copywriting.
Wieden worked for Georgia-Pacific, a forest products company based in Portland.
“On April Fool’s Day, 1982, Wieden and David Kennedy founded Wieden+Kennedy. With a card table, a few chairs, some cardboard file cabinets, and one client—Nike,” the obituary reads.
Wieden never formally retired from the agency, it reads, but instead “stepped into a chairman role and away from active agency life in 2015.”
His business partner, Kennedy, died last year.