Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Nike Apologizes
Pitchfork reports that Nike has apologized for their use of the Minor Threat record cover.
an excerpt:
---
Minor Threat's music and iconographic album cover have been an inspiration to countless skateboarders since the album came out in 1984. And for members of the Nike Skateboarding staff, this is no different. Because of the album's strong imagery and because our East Coast tour ends in Washington, DC, we felt that it was a perfect fit. This was a poor judgment call and should not have been executed without consulting Minor Threat and Dischord Records.
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First of all, the anal-retentive record collector in me has to point out that the "iconographic" artwork is from an early EP which came out in 1981. Being such big Minor Threat fans, I'm surprised the folks at Nike didn't catch that.
Secondly, it sounds like they're saying "We decided to steal the artwork, change it a bit and use it for our own purposes. Turns out that wasn't a good idea. Sorry about that." Not much of an apology.
I'd be more likely to believe them if they said that their art department came up with this concept and the company had no idea the art was from a legitimate record. They could pull the ads, apologize and say "We didn't know." But that's not how it happened. They knew what they were doing ahead of time, went with the ads anyway and apologized for it later. They knew it was illegal. They just thought they could get away with it. That's the difference between being ignorant and being scum.
I'm sure Nike would be much just as understanding if everyone started putting modified "Swoosh" logos all over their blogs. Right?
an excerpt:
---
Minor Threat's music and iconographic album cover have been an inspiration to countless skateboarders since the album came out in 1984. And for members of the Nike Skateboarding staff, this is no different. Because of the album's strong imagery and because our East Coast tour ends in Washington, DC, we felt that it was a perfect fit. This was a poor judgment call and should not have been executed without consulting Minor Threat and Dischord Records.
---
First of all, the anal-retentive record collector in me has to point out that the "iconographic" artwork is from an early EP which came out in 1981. Being such big Minor Threat fans, I'm surprised the folks at Nike didn't catch that.
Secondly, it sounds like they're saying "We decided to steal the artwork, change it a bit and use it for our own purposes. Turns out that wasn't a good idea. Sorry about that." Not much of an apology.
I'd be more likely to believe them if they said that their art department came up with this concept and the company had no idea the art was from a legitimate record. They could pull the ads, apologize and say "We didn't know." But that's not how it happened. They knew what they were doing ahead of time, went with the ads anyway and apologized for it later. They knew it was illegal. They just thought they could get away with it. That's the difference between being ignorant and being scum.
I'm sure Nike would be much just as understanding if everyone started putting modified "Swoosh" logos all over their blogs. Right?
