Sunday, April 15, 2007

Nike Declares That Ignorance, Thy Name Is Imus

Too Bad The Swoosh Kings In Beaverton Don't Know How to Spell
Tucked inside today's New York Times sports section, among other outlets, is an ad from Nike that's a bitch slap to Imus with a velvet glove.
In small type that takes up no more than a fifth of the page, it starts off:

Thank you, ignorance
Thank you for starting the conversation.
Thank you for making an entire nation listen to the Rutger's team story. And for making us wonder what other great stories we've missed.

That's Nike's spelling of Rutgers, not mine.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't make a big deal about such a thing. Well, actually I would, as it's an inexcusable mistake, given the number of eyeballs at corporate HQ as well as its ad and PR agency honchos who look over this stuff before it goes public.
Here, Nike's trying to be all righteous, as often is its forte. But it just looks dumb when it gets the most basic details wrong, especially in an ad that likely cost north of $50K in the Times, where no one else was apparently reading the copy either.
At least we now know who has the Rutgers shoe contract.

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