Nike asks Chinese government to identify Yahoo blogger
When the rebel becomes king, it doesn't mean the people will suddenly be smiling.
Nike, once the brand that championed all who challenged authority, seems to have suddenly taken on the mantle, as well as the athletic supporter, of a regime not known for its fondness for allowing people to just do it.
The story begins with tears and might end in many more.
Many Chinese faces were moist when Liu Xiang, a very pretty 110-meter hurdler, suddenly withdrew from the preliminary heats of the Olympic competition.
It all looked a little odd. He was apparently seen kicking an iron door in an aggressive manner shortly before the race. He went out onto the track and suddenly declared his ankle wasn't up to the task. He limped off in apparent agony.
Shortly afterward, someone who claimed to be a member of Nike's inside lane, wrote a post on a Yahoo message board that accused the company of being complicit in Liu Xiang's sudden exit.
(Credit:
CC bbaunach)
The suggestion was that Nike knew Liu Xiang couldn't win, so they told him not to run, as a disappointing performance would harm their investment in him far more than a heart-tugging withdrawal.
Now the odd thing is that this isn't the first time someone has accused Nike of having more than a digit in live sporting decisions.
When a curiously subdued, possibly drugged, and entirely sleep-walking Ronaldo played for Brazil in the 1998 World Cup Final, there were more than a few commentators willing to debate whether the only reason he had been on the field at all was because Nike, the team's sponsor, had insisted.
So how do you think Nike reacted to this Yahoo posting? Ignored it, perhaps? Launched a PR campaign featuring Liu Xiang hopping on his good ankle? Not quite.
"We have immediately asked relevant government departments to investigate those that started the rumor," said Nike spokesman Charlie Brooks.
I will pause now to allow you to perform your best double take.
OK?
Yes, Nike, the brand that prides itself on the iconoclastic and fantastic, has asked the not fantastically democratic Chinese government to root out this rogue and, well, shake him by the sleeves of his t-shirt, perhaps.
Mr. Brooks told The Guardian newspaper: "This isn't about a debate on freedom of speech. It's simply helping us to identify the person who posted it."
Which suggests that Nike either has a good suspicion as to the person's identity. Or not. It might also suggest to some that Nike has temporarily lost the part of its inner brain that judges when to stir things up and when to move right along.
What can Nike gain from behaving like a granny who's just had her handbag stolen by a tiny teenager and asked a big, burly policeman to find the man who took it? The company's actions serve only to highlight the issue more, when letting a sleeping blog lie might have allowed for this little conspiracy theory to waft its way into the annals of obscurity.
Unless, of course, it isn't a conspiracy theory at all, and they fear that this one little rumor might give credence to a quite staggeringly cynical story.
It all just feels so very, very unNike. Think about it. A brand that so many still admire thanks to Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Spike Lee, and remixes of old Elvis tracks, working together with "government departments." In China.
I wonder if they called Jerry Yang first to see how this blogger nonsense works over there. (Web debate on this subject in China is already being, how can one put it, edited.)
And I wonder what the "government departments" will do to the person who posted this tale.
Community service in a sweatshop, perhaps?
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
As for "waterboarding" Anakin, Chinese culture is not American culture, it's very different. Different methods, different strategies, different ways of communicating (and I don't mean language).
400 current and former employees of the Chicago Niketown store accused Nike managers of using racial slurs in addressing black customers and employees, accusing black workers of theft, and prohibiting them from advancing professionally. It cost NiKKKe $7.6 million!
I smell a boycott
Analyn G
- by margin-light-foot August 25, 2008 8:22 AM PDT
- A Gold Metal take away the life of a thousand
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(9 Comments)and thousand young Chinese Athletes even when they are still in the
child stage .
Nike is indirectly killing a thousand young Chinese Athletes and Children
Why, just because they are supporting the bloody game,
and this game has killed a thousand yound Chinese Children,
even they don't have any chance to appear themselves in the Olympic. They dead,
They becomes cripples for life
.
Chinese athlete training system is entirely copying from the Soviet union but.
even worst than the Soviet union
.
Why, Do you know all the athletes are trained when they are 4 or 6 years old ,
They are not allowed to attend the normal shchool. What they know is everyday --
- repeat and repeat Training ---
Do you know many loss their life during the training.
Do you know many become cripple . China has no medical aid. pay money
for your health.
Do you know many unbeliveable punishment -- hitting and kicking and no eating to
those children if their perfomance is not to the standard or expectation.
Do you know they are not allowed to see their parents even for 6 years and even longer during their training.
A Chinese Gold Metal Winner cry in the TV when she heard her mother several months ago just when she receive the metal . How pity,
Government block the news and do not allow she know her mother has
gone.
Lix Xiang is lucky, he earn money from Nike from....
but not all the athletes are lucky.
Many become Cripple and many even become beggers, Do you know.
I live in Hong Kong, But My Factory is in China, I work in China for
over 10 years . I know many many things in China, from my
Friends in China., From those victims I know. from the Radio in
Hong Kong.
Have you heard many Gold Metal Winners they sit
in the street and take out their Gold Metal out asking to sell their
Gold Metal, Just because they don't have RICE.
Please, trace back to the Hong Kong Newspapers,
They have these Report
Nike just thinking of Money, but doing a dirty job.
Why, Nike is dirty just becasue Nike use those Poor and Pity Athlete
use them to earn money,
secondly they use this bloody game to earn the dirty money.
Why bloody game, see many cripples children in China,
They are kicked out just because they break their arms
their legs.........during the training. Many become begger in the street,
Do you know.
I pity Liu Xiang, I surely hope he will win the Gold in London,
but I don;t support those brand use the bloody game to
earn money, Why the bloody game,
see many cripple Children, and the dead,and .........
All Nike products has already been thrown to
my rubblish bin. No More Nike......