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Above is one of three ads Nike has launched to promote it's new Hyperdunk show. The image is of course, a slightly exaggerated act of dunking on one's face. But seeing as we're becoming so incredibly hypersensitive these days, there has been a large contingent that have found these print and billboard ads to be "anti-gay."
There is another image that is associated with the words "Punks Jump Up," which True Hoop found to be associated with a 1992 rap song that contained a great deal of anti-gay lyrics. Is that enough evidence, however, to deem this inappropriate?
Straight or gay, no one wants to get dunked on.
Wrong or right, the best ads get the most attention and start a conversation. Mission accomplished, and perhaps this was the intended goal all along.
As a response, Nike has issued this statement and dropped the Hyperdunk ads:
Nike is strongly opposed to discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting athletes regardless of their sexual orientation. The advertisement in question is based purely upon a common insight from within the game of basketball - the athletic feat of dunking on the opposition, and is not intended to be offensive.
However, after listening to concerns expressed around specific executions, we have decided to drop them from the campaign to underline our ongoing commitment to supporting diversity in sport and the workplace.
Nike has a strong record of support for diversity and is proud to have been honored with a 100 percent score over several consecutive years in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation¹s Corporate Equality Index.
Maybe Nike was just inspired by that punk Greg Paulus.
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