Here's another example of how grassroots are using the internet to fight back.
Earlier this month, Nike stole the album cover from Ian MacKaye's 1981 punk/hardcore classic Minor Threat to promote a new line of shoes. Nike's advertisers have been courting American skater culture and subculture in general for a long time now, but ordinarily they at least ask for a celebrity's permission before using him/her as a spokesperson.
In this case, Nike apparently decided to just bypass permission-asking altogether and steamroll over copyright law. MacKaye is a notoriously hard-nosed and principled businessman, known for saying things like "no amount of money is worth losing control of our music". He's shrewdly held onto the copyright for all of his albums, and it's unlikely he would have cooperated had he been asked.
Last week, Pitchfork Media publicized the rip-off, along with a scathing statement from MacKaye's Dischord Records:
"They stole it and we're not happy about it. Nike is a giant corporation which is attempting to manipulate the alternative skate culture to create an even wider demand for their already ubiquitous brand. Nike represents just about the antithesis of what Dischord stands for and it makes me sick to my stomach to think they are using this explicit imagery to fool kids into thinking that the general ethos of this label, and Minor Threat in particular, can somehow be linked to Nike's mission. It's disgusting."
Blogstorm! Starting from EchoDitto's initial discovery of the fracas Friday afternoon on DCist, our operatives monitored hundreds of outraged and hysterical blogposts and forum comments from skaters and activists worldwide, as well as a speed-update of Nike's Wikipedia page and a Photoshop contest that's already received a couple hundred mashups of "Nike and other evil corporations ruining famous album covers," like the Wal-Mart one at the top of this post. (Because- have you heard?- Wal-Mart is the new Nike.)
Yesterday, inevitably, the story entered the mainstream media. Even though it had been brewing all weekend, Nike failed to react quickly enough to get a quote in MTV's coverage. (Note to Nike's PR firm: Use Technorati.) By the end of the day, though, they had issued a surprised and hasty apology promising to recall the flyers and proclaiming their deep respect and admiration for Dischord, though it doesn't look like it's made anyone less angry at them.
Of course, no there's been no major change here. Nike's profits are higher than ever, and- protestations of responsibility aside- they're not going to stop depending on indentured servitude any time soon. But for a few days anyway, they've given the netroots a new anthem:
Make do with what you have
take what you can get.
Pay no mind to us-
we're just a minor threat.
