The adidas ad running in the current issue of Sports
Illustrated, featuring a runner "in the buff" changing his
clothes with the tag "Runners, yeah, we're different," is
criticized by Paul Woody of the RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, who
wrote that "there's nothing fortunate about this ad." Woody
added that adidas is "attempting to out-Nike Nike," but
there's "just one problem. This adidas ad goes beyond the
bounds of good taste or good sense or thought-provoking
ideas. The message adidas wants to send is that runners who
use its products are different and should be proud to be
different. But this ad is an insult to runners, an insult
to sport, an affront to readers and is simply disgusting and
repulsive" (TIMES-DISPATCH, 7/11). In Jacksonville, Michael
DiRocco wrote that an SI customer service rep said that she
"had not received any complaints" about the ad, which ran in
"several" publications, and an operator in SI's home office
in N.Y. said she "received only one complaint." Todd
Williams, the runner pictured in the ad: "I think it's a
good ad. Some people might not like it, but it's not like
I'm facing forward at the camera" (FL TIMES-UNION, 7/10).
