Nike Wants us to "Get High"

A new ad and apparel campaign by Nike targetting skate and snowboarders removes the regular "just do it" and replaces it with phrases such as "dope", "get high", and "ride pipe" and, unsurprisingly, has faced a good deal of backlash from anti-drug organizations. Nike defends the campaign by saying the phrases are lingo regularly used in the extreme sports community and do not directly mean "use drugs," but refer to the sport with drug references. Anti drug groups are obviously pissed saying that, despite the "extreme-sport" meaning of the words, the actual-life meaning of the words suggest kids use drugs. Many kids will see the shirts with no experience as to what the slang meaning is and might connect the company and the campaign, as well as people wearing the clothes to the use of drugs.

It's a tough situation since the words are obviously not meant to suggest the use of actual drugs, but the phrases legitimately are connected to drug use. It may be the lingo of extreme athletes, but it's also the lingo of drug users. In a society where drugs are so prevalent, you would hope companies would recognize the possibility for the words to be misunderstood or misinterpreted. While I don't particularly have a problem with it, I can definitely understand why so many people do. The one main thing here that I don't particularly like is that Nike is basically saying that, as long as it's regularly used slang for something else, you can use it. I have a hard time believing that if "fag" or "queer" became regular slang in a sport that it would be used as a campaign slogan, but according to this, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. I guess I can see where they are coming from...no one thinks the QB is actually praying if the announcers say he throws up a hail mary. But then this is in reference to drugs...something that can have devastating effects on any family anywhere and needs to be treated accordingly.

I don't think it will directly lead to any huge new drug problem at all, but I don't think NIKE looks good in any of this. It just kinda seems out of touch. Yes there is a group of people who regularly use these terms with no correlation to drugs, but there is a significantly larger portion of people who primarily or exclusively connect these phrases with drug abuse.

Let's make an obvious example. The swastika is the symbol of the Nazis most recently, but for a long time was a symbol meaning "well-being" and was used for centuries across the world. If I walked around wearing a shirt with a giant swastika on the front, I'd be labeled a racist, neo-nazi, skinhead and all that stuff. If I responded with "no, its the swastika from ancient india meaning peace" they'd just stare at me. The fact is that it means something bad to such a large amount of people that no matter what I meant to reference, it still signifies evil. I can't deny that simply because I was using it from a different context. I think Nike should maybe view it through that type of lens. If they see and understand that issue and don't care, that's up to them. But to deny the fact that people will be justifiably offended because you are using it in the "extreme-sport slang" way is a pretty close-minded and out of touch view.

Read the article below:
http://www.cbssports.com/#!/general/story/15262550/nike-faces-antidrug-backlash-to-tshirts