Nike Ad Likened to Crucifixion, Garners Complaints

roony_nike.jpg

Professing not to know why Nike would do such a thing (uh...hello? publicity), several have complained about a Nike ad featuring Wayne Rooney partially painted red with his arms outstretched. Church groups are likening it to Christ's crucifixion and British MPs think it's horribly war-like. Wieden + Kennedy, creators of the ad, defend it saying it has nothing to do with the crucifixion and was intended to celebrate Rooney's return to his team after an injury.

A Nike spokeswoman explains further, telling the Daily Mail, "If we have offended anyone on those grounds, we would stress it was unintentional and we apologize. It is not meant to be an aggressive picture, either. It was a case of catching the mood of the nation as everyone urges Rooney on to great things, and of course our slogan puts it perfectly. The red paint is not meant to be blood, it's just echoing the body paint which fans cover themselves in and the rest of Wayne's body is painted white. It's the flag of St George, and nothing else. We have had nothing but positive reaction to the poster and a lot of people have been asking if they can buy it. We have no plans to produce it as a poster."

by Steve Hall    Jun-22-06   Click to Comment   
Topic: Campaigns, Newspaper, Outdoor   

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Comments



Comments

Reminds me of the Quake 3 logo.

Posted by: Jack on June 22, 2006 11:16 PM

Here's the spoof of that ad after England's draw with Sweden.

http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/2006/06/wayne_rooney_ni.html

Posted by: Cherryflava on June 23, 2006 5:08 AM

wieden and kennedy are idiots, defending something so obvious horrid and idiotic

Posted by: SDgf on June 25, 2006 2:11 AM

I think W+K have knocked it out of the park with this one. Traditional advertising has to not only get attention but also make an effort to connect with the community it is targeting. It is a brilliant piece of visual communication, it's arresting, and it highlights the, dare I say, passion behind football and its fans. Thank god there's some marketers with some balls out there.

Karl

Posted by: karl long on June 25, 2006 10:00 PM

like the Marilyn Monroe image

http://archives.arte-tv.com/static/c2/agendaexpos/marilyn/Bert-Stern.jpg

Posted by: shaun c. on October 10, 2006 4:01 PM