Nike said yesterday that it "would take students to its
overseas factories to demonstrate that they were not
'sweatshops,'" according to Victoria Griffith of the
FINANCIAL TIMES, who calls the move a "radical departure
from" the company's "earlier stance" not to reveal factory
locations. Nike Labor Practices Group's Simon Pestridge:
"University students are an important marketing target for
us, and we want to make sure they're comfortable with who we
are." Nike will select ten student activists "to make the
visits by running a national essay contest" that the company
advertised in the newspapers of 11 U.S. universities where
"criticism of the company has been particularly strident."
The ad reads: "Where can you get the facts on our labour
practices? (Hint: Probably not from the guy carrying a sign
and yelling 'Nike Sucks!)" To be eligible for the contest,
a student "must attend a university that sells Nike's
products and speak the language of one of the countries
where the factories are located." Students will travel with
Nike's accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (FINANCIAL
TIMES, 11/12). In Boston, Kim Tan writes that "campus
activists ... scoffed at" Nike's offer yesterday, "saying
it's a desperate attempt to shore up Nike's image among
students." Brown Univ. student activist Nicholas Reville,
on Nike's move: "It just seems so planned that I'd just have
to be skeptical" (BOSTON HERALD, 11/12).
