Meagan Boson

The year was 1992 and I was a 13-year-old kid without a care in the world. In fact, I had a theme song; Like Mike. Yep, the famous Gatorade ® commercial with everyone’s favorite hoop star. I can easily recall the lyrics from memory as I sit here:

Sometimes I dream that he is me.
You've got to see that's how I dream to be.
I dream I move … I dream I groove, Like Mike.
If I could Be Like Mike … I wanna be, I wanna be Like Mike.

The sound of the hand drums in the background, the soprano singing the reprise, and the kids just like me that idolized Michael “Air” Jordan. I’m not ashamed to say that this is why I started drinking Gatorade and even to this day, you won’t catch me fueling up on PowerAde, Vitamin Water, or any of that other stuff. Heck, Gatorade is purely American; just like Mike and me.

What happened to those commercials? The ones that brought us into the world of the people we admired? The commercials that were 60 second long glimpses into the highlight reel of the greats? I think they still exist on ESPN, but with the growth of TMZ and the paparazzi, our heroes have become just a little too human to influence us to buy their products without a second thought.

Well, it was great while it lasted. I don’t know about you, but I still wanna be like Mike. I wanna fly. Soar even. No, not on the basketball court, but in life and this is what I think I really got from this commercial that I watched hundreds of times almost 20 years ago. Actually, I AM like Mike. I HAVE excelled, achieved, and even thrived in this thing we call life. So I guess when I break it down looking back on my childhood, Gatorade ® somehow taught me to achieve. Or maybe, I’m just too deep even for me. But, no matter what anyone says, I still dream and you should too.

Check out the commercial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0AGiq9j_Ak

Do you wanna be Like Mike?

Graphic Credit:
Sabrina Segal