New Nike Campaign Draws Mixed Reaction, Including Accusations Of Double Standards

Nike's new "equality" campaign featuring LeBron James and Serena Williams "has been blasted as hypocritical," according to Davies & Quinn of the London DAILY MAIL. The commercial, which lasts 1 minute and 30 seconds and is shot "entirely in black and white," features James, Williams, Kevin Durant, NFL player Victor Cruz, gymnast Gabby Douglas, U.S. women's footballer and "LGBT activist" Megan Rapinoe and Olympic hurdler Dalilah Muhammad. But viewers have "accused Nike of having double standards," saying the factory workers producing the brand's products "work in 'sweatshops' for 'low wage' in the ad which promotes the tagline 'equality should have no boundaries.'" Fox Sports reporter Clay Travis "has been heavily critical of the campaign and lambasted Nike on Fox Radio." He questioned how Nike "can promote equality" when its athletes "are superstars and when people work for measly wages to produce their goods." In an article on Outkick The Coverage, he said, "While you're busy sharing this ad and praising the company for embracing equality everywhere just be glad that you were born in America and don't have to work for $3 a day making LeBron James's shoes in an awful factory in Indonesia." Many people online agreed with him, including Katie Mac, who tweeted, "Nike telling us we should be equals. I'm sorry, what do you pay your sweatshop employees? And the margins on your products are? Waiting." Many of Nike's production factories "are based in Asia, which is the main criticism of those opposed to the ad." However, "the majority of responses to the ad were positive." As well as "taking shots at Nike over the perceived inequality of its workforce, others slammed the fact that the athletes were all American." Nike said in a statement that the campaign is a "continuation of the organization's desire to create a fair and respectful world -- both on and off the field" (DAILY MAIL, 2/13).