New Nike Ad Campaign: Homophobia Sells Sneakers?
Wednesday July 23, 2008
A new print ad campaign for Nike basketball sneakers is drawing complaints for drawing on homophobia to sell basketball kicks.
The campaign, created by Wieden & Kennedy, features a series of basketball players being dunked on... in much the same way that Vince Carter posterized Frederic Weis in the 2000 Olympics. That in itself wouldn't generate much outrage -- even in today's politically-correct society, it's considered acceptable to mock ol' "French Toast" -- but this campaign is fairly specific in equating embarassment with getting a face-full of another man's crotch.
Check out all the ads -- complete with tag-lines like "that ain't right," and "punks jump up" -- on the Wieden & Kennedy blog.
The campaign has drawn significant criticism on sites like Gawker and TrueHoop. The agency's response called the complaints "hyper-sensitive."
What's your take? Join the discussion in the college hoops forum.
Comments
You see lots of the same thing live and in person at any NBA game (and high school and college games). Are all the players embarrassed? I don’t think so, unless the get called for a foul. Ya know, it sure would be nice if all these goofs stopped trolling life looking for ways to be offended. Get a life, and if you don’t like it, buy Reeboks.
Lots of the same thing?
The only time I’ve ever seen a guy get dunked on that badly was the Vince Carter/Frederic Weis incident.
As for the trash talk… you’re absolutely right. These ads are positively tame compared to what you’ll hear in the average rec league game, let alone a college or NBA contest.
The thing is, “jock” culture has a very definite homophobic undertone already. So one could argue that responsible companies would do well to stay far away from even the slightest appearance of homophobia.
It will be interesting to see what, if any, public response we get from Nike. My guess is it will be a bit more apologetic than the reaction from the agency.
I think these ads are great…all sports have that sort of homoerotic stuff going on with the butt slapping and pig piles. To me these are sepecially funny becacuse I always thought it must be so unpleasant for dudes always being thrusted into eachother’s junk while they play.
Hmmm. I really wanted to be offended, to spew some words of righteous indignation here. I don’t particularly care for Nike as a company, for one thing. I truly, honestly hoped for something that would make me want to organize a boycott of them (again). But it just ain’t here, at least in my opinion. I didn’t see anything particularly homophobic in these images.
That said, I didn’t vote in your poll. I don’t agree with the statement “trash talk…has nothing to do with homophobia.” I think there’s a lot of homophobia demonstrated in the trash talking that goes on in pro sports.
I voted homophobic, but it’s not that for me as much as it’s distasteful in general. From a marketing perspective, it gets people talking, and that’s what they want. From a gay perspective, they just might sell more Nikes to gays! I’m not a sports fan at all, so I’m not the market, and Nike won’t care at all what I think, lol.