The Power of Nike

After looking more into advertising I realized it isn’t only a scheme for more money, but also a form of expression. Some may even call it art. One has to be clever, up to date with social media, and creative enough to capture multiple viewers’ attention. Yet it seemed odd to me that the people who are this artistic and intelligent can sometimes use advertisements that seem fine on the surface, but when viewed on a different level can be mocking and cruel.

Chapter 7 in Practices of Looking focused on the power of advertisements, how they are everywhere in our modern era- the television, billboards, magazines, as we walk along the street. The authors also chose to focus on the foundation of these advertisements as well: who are the people making these ads and why this should affect us? One key issue was Nike. Nike creates effective ads, which is one of the main reasons why the company is so successful. But if an active newsreader were to truly notice these advertisements they could be offended by the subliminally cruel message.

Type “Nike child labor” into Google and multiple articles, ranging back to the late 90s, appear. The public has been widely aware of the child labor issues Nike is involved with for some time; yet people still buy Nike products. It seems odd to me that so many people ignore harsh facts just because they want to seem cool- but then I looked in my closet and noticed I too had Nike shoes. When I bought these sneakers two or three years ago I wasn’t thinking about the child labor or at all about the production of the shoes. I was thinking how comfortable they would be when I went running and how they were pretty cool sneakers. This relates back to commodity fetishism- the shoes, in my eyes (the eyes’ of the consumer), were stripped of their original meaning of labor and production.

After studying this chapter though I went back to Google and typed in “Nike advertisements,” and what I found was shocking. Except now that I had read and understood advertising I guess it wasn't as much shocking as it was confusing. Nike must have some powerful resources because they still make advertisements like this one:

To an unaware viewer this ad is funny. It is the picture of a small child defacing a wall when he decides to urinate on it. But if one takes a closer examination of the ad it is a bit disturbing. The child appears to be undernourished, the floor is covered in garbage and dirt, this is an obviously poor area. It seems ironic that Nike uses poor, undernourished children for their advertisements when these are actually the children who also are or were involved with child labor. But Nike doesn’t seem to care and I still wonder why. My only answer is that Nike must really count on the population of those who are either uniformed, those who just don’t care, or those who want Nike products because Nike is still ‘funny’ and ‘cool’.

I may not fully understand advertising- I am still confused as to why a company like Nike can be so rich and powerful when its foundation is undernourished children. But one thing is for sure- they have some powerful advertisements to generate so much power from the little power of those who physically create their products.