After an "eight-year public relations assault by
activists, students and unions," Nike "has gone to great
lengths to fight back" on its overseas labor policy,
according to Tom McCawley of the FINANCIAL TIMES, who
examines the efforts by Nike to improve its corporate image.
Nike has concentrated on "corporate responsibility" and PR
in its efforts, "as well as opening its operations and those
of its suppliers to numerous inspections." McCawley: "Has
the campaign worked? Nike is finally starting to enjoy some
success in persuading the international media that its
factories are no longer sweatshops." But McCawley writes
that that has not "silenced academic researchers in
Indonesia who assert that much is still wrong on the factory
floor." McCawley points out that the controversy could "re-
emerge in the media" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 12/21). Meanwhile,
Robert Crawford writes that adidas Global Dir of Social &
Environmental Affairs David Husselbee was appointed in '99
"to make the ideals and standards of engagement (code of
conduct) practical" to adidas' "hundreds of subcontractors
around the world." Crawford writes that "up to that point,
[adidas'] human rights policies had been largely developed
on an ad hoc basis." But after the "attacks" Nike received,
the BOD "was keen to put a human rights policy into action."
Unlike Nike, however, adidas did not "use the programme" as
a PR exercise, but rather viewed it as a "defensive tool to
be used cautiously" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 12/21).