Nike got a brisk reminder last week of how edgy marketing can easily blow up in a brand’s face, according to Fortune.com.
The sneaker and apparel giant’s ad, at its store on Boston’s Newbury Street ahead of the city’s iconic marathon, declared: “Runners Welcome. Walkers Tolerated.”
“It was a striking misreading of the culture of runners, and it came at a moment when Nike is trying to win serious runners back,” writes Fortune’s Phil Wahba.
The swipe at walkers or slow runners was taken by the bib-wearing bipeds as mean-spirited.
“The language came off as at odds with the sport’s inclusive spirit, and for the vast majority of runners who don’t run fast enough to qualify for Boston or those who have reason to walk part of the 26.2-mile road race, it felt like a gratuitous slap in the face,” Wahba says.
Nike took down the ad and apologized on Friday.
“We want more people to feel welcome in running – no matter their pace, experience, or the distance,” Nike officials said in a corporate statement that clearly doesn’t reflect how they really feel about slowpokes.
Nike replaced the sign with one reading “Movement is what matters.”
Those runners, they ain’t got no sense of humor.
No coincidence that Nike just days later announced it’s cutting 1,400 jobs due to slow, uh, low earnings.
“Movement is what matters.”
