Nike Bends to Enviros, Changes Ad

Some might suggest that Nike has become a more politically sensitive company. Others, like this sports columnist, believe the company has been "strong-armed by an environmentalist organization."

Whatever the case, today Nike replaced an ad that it had created to promote the new uniforms for the West Virginia University football team with another, less controversial one.

What was wrong with the first ad? It showed the new uniform, and in the backdrop was a flat treeless mountaintop, an image that some said appeared to be a tacit endorsement of strip mining.

So Nike pulled the ad and replaced it with this:


In West Virginia coal mining is next to God, and the recent deaths of 29 men at the Upper Big Branch mine strengthened the resolve of a state that, in the words of the sports columnist "can only hope that those who don't understand the hard work, the memories, the blood, the sweat, and the tears they have demonized this past week, will not look to capitalize on another opportunity to garner media attention in the hopes of furthering their own agenda."

The new Nike helmet for the West Virginia Mountaineers team has the number 29 at the back to honor the men who died in the mine.