Images, Tag In Nike Ad Campaign Could Be Considered Homophobic

A new Nike ad campaign for the upcoming release of its Hyperdunk shoe featuring one player dunking on another player raises the question of whether the ads are a “new low in homophobic advertising,” according to Hamilton Nolan of GAWKER.com. The ads, via Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, show the second player’s head between the dunker’s legs, the “worst way possible” to be dunked on, and the tagline “That Ain’t Right.” Nike has been “plastering them around [N.Y.’s] most famous streetball meccas” to coincide with the Hyperdunk’s release. While basketball fans “would scarcely think twice about these ads, except maybe to chuckle,” the “larger point is that the joke here ... is based on the implacable homophobia of straight jocks.” Nolan wrote Nike should either “pull the ads” or “rework them to be friendlier to gay basketball fans” (GAWKER.com, 7/22). TRUEHOOP's Henry Abbott wrote, “That’s the new pinnacle, or trough, of humiliation-themed basketball advertising. ... The main thing people will remember [about the ad] is the shot of one dunking man’s junk in another player’s face.” Abbott: "If I ran Wieden + Kennedy, or Nike, I wouldn’t have green-lighted that headline with that image. But I’m not at all surprised that others did. ... I can’t wait to live in a world where this ad would not be commonly interpreted as homophobic, but I’m not sure I do live there now" (ESPN.com, 7/22).