Surprisingly enough, this affair, of which I learned about yesterday via BBC news has caught fairly little attention in the blogsphere. Nikey decided to turn it’s famous Hackney "Park Life" advertisement from 1997 featuring Sunday pub
league players being joined by four top Premiership players, into a whole line of merchandise that celebrates, as Nike’s spokesman said "the football heritage and culture of Hackney Marshes" - home to 87 football pitches. Fabulous idea indeed. But then, no one at Nike found it appropriate to ask the permission of Hackney council to use its logo. The affair was setteled a couple of days ago in an out-of-courte settlment where Nike will be paying £300K to Hackney council, a sum which will be used towards sports activities.
I really don’t think its just a matter of copyrights issue. It is indeed amazing that no one in the legal department in Nike didn’t think they are doing anything wrong (duh!?) but the more important issue to my view is that no one in the marketing department didn’t think it was a great opportunity for Nike to get involved in a big piece of so called "cause marketing" and to work together with Hackney, a council that could really use a good sponsorship and presents a brilliant opportunity to do something really amazing in brand-community relations. And they missed it big time.
I have no other explanation but sheer arrogance on Nike’s account. They probably thought that they are doing a huge favour to Hackney, a "not-such-a good-neighbourhood" that must be thrilled that the coolest brand in the world shows some interest in them. I honestly don’t buy Nikey’s spokesman assertion that they "inadvertently used imagery that included the council’s logo".
Ironically, they simply stood to their own value: they had a great idea and they just did it!
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