HEY, IT’S AN EASY MISTAKE TO MAKE. COULD HAPPEN TO ANYBODY: Nike is getting hammered for ‘tone-deaf’ ad at London Marathon: ‘Heads need to roll.’
The company issued an apology over the ad.
Nike’s latest advertisement at the London Marathon was lambasted as tone-deaf and completely disrespectful.
The red-colored sign read, “Never again. Until next year.” It was supposed to refer to the spirit of runners finishing a trial and returning the next year, but many took it as an insult to the victims of the Holocaust.
Among the critics was billionaire investor Bill Ackman.
“The idea that @Nike would make light of the holocaust using Hitler-red imagery in a post-October 7th world is stunning. Heads need to roll. WTF Nike?” he posted.
“I assume that this was unintentional, but it is hard to imagine that there was no one at @Nike, on the marketing team, at their advertising firm, banner manufacture etc. who didn’t know or who didn’t think to Google the words ‘Never again,'” he added in a second tweet.
“I’m guessing it’s not super fun in the halls of @Nike right now. So many unforced errors. Never again? WTAF was this marketing person thinking?? A purge of mid level marketers must be underway. Plus some high level ones,” replied XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey.
“What on earth was @Nike thinking? They posted this enormous billboard in London for the London Marathon, just days after Holocaust Remembrance Day, but not for Holocaust Remembrance Day,” wrote pro-Israel author Aviva Klompas.
How many of layers of executives had to sign off on such a campaign?
Flashback to 2019, when Nike issued a pair of Betsy Ross-flag embedded sneakers, likely only so that uber-woke Nike endorser Colin Kaepernick could dunk on them, to coincide with the Fourth of July. In Nike’s collective mind, this is evil and “offensive:”
But “Never Again. Until Next Year,” on a red background, is perfectly acceptable to Nike. Also, pay no attention to who makes the corporation’s sneakers. Or as Deadspin deadpanned in 2020: “Nike would very much like to keep its slave labor, thank you.”
Related: Meet the Nike Marketing Specialist Who Says Israel, Not Hamas, Is ‘Massacring Civilians.’