NBC and CBS have been running a revised version of the
Nike ad for the Air Cross Trainer II featuring Marion Jones
since the ad's launch last Saturday. The ad prompts viewers
to go to the company's Web site and choose the ad's ending.
Both networks required that Nike alter the ending of the ad
to include the text "whatever.nike.com" instead of the
original "Continued at whatever.nike.com" to keep viewers
tuned into the TV and not the Internet. Other ads in the
campaign will feature Mark McGwire and snowboarder Rob
Kingwill (THE DAILY). MSNBC.com's Jane Weaver wrote that
Nike's "innovative hybrid of television and Web advertising"
has some TV networks "worried they'll lose too many of their
viewers to the Internet." A source at NBC "compares" the
net's move to its "refusal to air ads that tell viewers to
watch a different network at a specific time." CBS
spokesperson Dana McClintock said the reason for the net
requesting the revised version is that the original ad "did
divert viewers away from the TV. Obviously it's reasonable
for us not to want to offend other advertisers in the pod or
cannibalize our programming." But Steve Sandoz, Interactive
Creative Dir for Wieden & Kennedy, which created the Nike
campaign, said, "This is the model for where advertising is
going to go. It's silly for networks to be concerned at all
about it" (MSNBC.com, 1/16).
