Fwd: Nike in Indonesia

[Guest guest]

follow up from that cool Nik-e-mail just received back from veggie friend

in New York.

 

john

 

<quote>

 

jallan

 

John,

 

I guess that Nike email you sent was right after all......I would

have

never put it past Nike.

 

Brenda

 

Business Week: March 12, 2001

Up Front: Damage Control

 

Nike Trips over Its Laces

 

What started as a joke by an MIT grad student has become a prank heard

round

the world and a public-relations headache for Nike. In January, Jonah H.

Peretti, 27, visited Nike iD, a Web site that lets sneakerphiles

personalize

Nikes with colors and a 16-character message. Peretti picked

``sweatshop.''

Nike balked. It e-mailed Peretti with its formal rules for printing

messages.

In a series of increasingly comical exchanges, Peretti replied that

``sweatshop'' transgresses none of Nike's rules. Nike finally cited

another

one: It doesn't have to print anything it doesn't want to.

Peretti sent the e-mails to about 10 friends. It was quickly forwarded.

And

forwarded. ``I thought it was funny,'' he says. Now he receives 500

e-mails a

day from around the world, many vowing to boycott Nike. He estimates two

million people have read it.

What could Nike have done differently? The company says nothing. But PR

experts cringe. Nike might have said that ```sweatshop' makes light of a

serious issue,'' says Tracy Tierney, a Richmond (Va.) PR consultant.

Nike is waiting for the prank to blow over. But that may take a while. A

new

report by Nike's self-policing body, Global Alliance, confirms worker

abuse

in its Indonesian factories--something Nike vows to address.

 

By Roy Furchgott

EDITED BY SHERIDAN PRASSO

 

Copyright 2001 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Any

use

is subject to (1) terms and conditions of this service and (2) rules

stated

under ``Read This First'' in the ``About Business Week'' area.

 

03/01/2001 6:53 PM