Nike is "strongly considering" making "I can" the theme
of a branding campaign slated to be launched in January,
according to Jeff Jensen of AD AGE. While Nike's trademark
"Just do it" line won't appear in the ads, sources said the
slogan "is not being retired." Nike has given OR-based
Wieden & Kennedy "the green light to begin production" on
the campaign. Execs at Nike's "other main brand agency,"
CA-based Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, confirmed that W&K
had been given the assignment (AD AGE, 11/17 issue). Nike
Dir of U.S. Advertising Chris Zimmerman said that Goodby
does have "parity" with W&K on global branding efforts:
"Both agencies are our branding agencies" (ADWEEK, 11/17).
FINAL COMMENTS: A Portland OREGONIAN editorial, on Jeff
Manning's three-part series on Nike's labor practices in
Asia, said that problems facing the company are not unique
to Nike but are "issues that surround the globalization of
economic markets." As far as efforts to oversee and remedy
such practices, the paper stated, "Any monitoring agency has
to be free of company interference, but it must also be
independent of ... groups and other causists, whose real
complaint is with capitalism, not Nike" (OREGONIAN, 11/14).
