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Loading ...Nike Drops Homophobic Ads
07.26.2008 12:45pm EDT
Nike said Friday it would pull its ads for its Hyperdunk basketball shoes, responding to criticism that they fed homophobic views.
Nike previously defended the ads, but said it would withdraw them as quickly as possible “to underline our ongoing commitment to supporting diversity in sport and the workplace,” The Oregonian reported.The ads were created by Portland’s Wieden+Kennedy agency and titled “That Ain’t Right,” “Isn’t That Cute,” and “Punks Jump Up.”
One ad showed a basketball player dunking over another. The crotch of the player dunking was planted firmly in the other player’s face. The ad sported a large tag line: “That Ain’t Right.”
Earlier, Nike had said the ads were “based purely upon a common insight from within the game of basketball – the athletic feat of dunking on the opposition, and is not intended to be offensive.”
Nike also reiterated its “history of supporting athletes regardless of their sexual orientation.” Nike has been praised by gay-rights advocates for supporting a 2007 Oregon law banning discrimination against gays in work, housing and public places.
An after hours call to Nike corporate communications rang unanswered Friday.
This commercial was not negative?
Consider this scene: Volley ball game on beach, ball coming over the net, man jumps, woman jumped first, man’s face gets right against woman’s breasts. Caption: You fill in the caption, and I will wager that it will be a positive one.
I did not see the ad but agree with what Brandon said. Just once, I’d like to see a Pride Parade consist of everyone in the day to day attire. The media, unfortunately, will only show the extremes of the parade to the masses. This is where they get the idea that “all gays” behave that way.
I remember a political ad for a republican in Tenn that dis’d a black Democrat competitor. It said “xxxxxx – He just isn’t right”. It was a direct but subtle appeal to racism, though many people were not obviously, but were emotionally connecting to the advertisement. And to make matters worse, when they showed the opponents face (black), you could hear an African Tom-Tom drum softly in the background. A pure racist appeal. That sort of thing stinks.
If Nike has been a good supporter of equality for gay folks, well maybe they just missed the issue in the adv. But we can all thank them for pulling it when the issues were pointed out to them.
And what we really need, Nike folks, is for you to help gay athletes come out of the closet. And that will help get rid of the false sissy image some people think fits gays. And if some still think gays are sissy, I know a gay guy who is a bouncer at a str8 bar – and he will damn well teach homophobes who the sissy is, as they run away crying. He HE.
Can you name me the theories that disputes them? I would be interested in reading those pieces. I mean the two theories I mentioned are popular to use when studying mass media by scholars. I know there are limitations to them, but none of them disputes the theories themselves. So I’m just curious to see what you’ve read about it.
There are many readings you can do to any piece, but apparently the most popular reading has been a promotion of homophobia. It’s like the mum mayo ad that ran in England. So why are queer people angry? Because they can see it. People are right when they say we’re really sensitive, but that’s because we’ve been exposed to it a lot more and we can catch the little nuances of homophobia that people might not notice.
David Ta, There are theories that would dispute both. All of the attention has giving Nike and the Ad agency exactly what there were looking for. Perhaps all media should be bannned so that everyone is protected. Now you’ll find the Nike with the same images with a different slogan. The croch ad is now “Say Hello” instead of “That Ain’t Right”. I guess one could say the Nike is now promoting Homosexuality. This is crazy.
Not to be mean Michael, but if you check out cultivation theory and social learning theory, it’s what I’m using to back my comments up; both are mass media theories.
Cultivation theory suggests that the more media people consume, the more their world view the world that way. Like if I’m not used to seeing lawyers than anything I would know about them, I would get from television, and that’s not necessarily how lawyers act in real life.
Social learning theory is this idea that people learn vicariously through behaviors displayed in mass media. So a famous experiment that was conducted was the “Bobo the clown” experiment where they showed a video to a little girl of a women beating up a clown, and after the video, the little girl mimicked the movements of the woman.
So what I’m getting at is that people will gather information from mass media on what it’s like to be gay or queer, and the more ads that are like this, people will put it into a little box of “What is bad,” including gay people who are starting to coming out because they are more vulnerable to societal influence. Sports have been known to be erotic from a same-sex perceptive, but it’s also been known to be hateful towards gay and bisexual men.
Nike is a good company. They’re ranked very high with HRC, so I believe it was just a mishandle on their part. No big deal.
I can’t believe someone would find this offensive. It’s sports and if any of these people complaining would have watched a basketball game, they’d understand the context. I get SO upset when our group complains over an ad like this but does nothing when people are dressed in glitter and drag parading through the streets. If you want people to accept us in society, then stop embarrassing us at these pride parades and complaining over minute things such as this Nike ad, it brings negative attention on us all.
How was that homophobic? I’m sure that for a majority of us a sweaty crotch is the LAST thing we want in our faces.
I agree with David Ta. At the very least, the ad has a subliminal sexual message that’s not only clearly homophobic, it also asserts an ambiguous moralistic disapproval: “That ain’t right.” What’s not right? Dunking the opposition, or the crotch-to-face implications? Ad agencies know exactly what they’re doing, and they shouldn’t escape censure when they try to act coy.
These ads are sports related and have nothing to do with sex. Saying that this is going to affect people in the coming out stage is insulting to their intelligence.
I agree with David Ta.
I agree with david. here-here!
Interesting point from Michael and William, but people will sexually connect the phrase “That ain’t right” with the crotch in the face, and internalize this as one instance where same-sex acts aren’t acceptable. The more ads there are that are like this, the more people will build will cultivate this idea that being gay is wrong. This is especially damaging to those who are in the beginning stages of coming out. So I understand why people would get upset over this.
I agree. Being overly sensitive can be as damaging as others being insensitive. Let’s keep our perspective and our sense of humor.
“That ain’t right” Is what we should call the push for Nike to pull the ads. The ad doesn’t feed homophobic views, but the criticism can.