The clip I chose to include for my second post is a Nike commerical called 'Stand Up' which is a Nike commercial against racism. The commercial features prominent footballers (soccer players) including Thierry Henry and Rio Ferdinand and consists of the footballers holding up signs in silence that illicit an anti-racist message. The message is that although these players are the best in the world they are still victims of racism. The challenge is for the viewer to stand up and speak out against racism.
I found this commercial interesting for two reasons. The first is because I had never seen it before and found it to be a very effective commercial. The use of the world's best players preaching an anti racism message was very powerful to me. The second reason was because of who put forth the commercial - Nike. Nike has been in trouble a number of times for racial controversy. An ad campagin put forth in the 90's for a high-top sneaker targeting the African American demographic led to a number of thefts and murders of civilians for their Nike sneakers. As the ads were targeting the African American demographic of low socio-economic standing and the popular culture of basketball players of the demographic associated with crime, Nike created 
a campaign that essentially led to a series of illegal activities to gain the sneakers. An example of this is the 'flaite' which is a classist Chilean Spanish slang term used to describe the urban youth of low socio-economic standing involved in crime who are reknowned for wearing Nike Dunks. Another example of a racially charged Nike dilemma occurred in Britain, one of the countries this commercial targeted, and involved the Nike sneaker the 'Air Stab' being pulled from shelves and production as it was found to be connected to Englands prominence of knife related violence (i.e. stabbings). That shoe was first launched in 1988 but the socio-cultural climate in England in 2008 and prominence of knife related violence led to the product being pulled and banned. The 'Air Stab' targeted hip-hop culture, whose memebership in England consists of the bulk of crime related persons.
a campaign that essentially led to a series of illegal activities to gain the sneakers. An example of this is the 'flaite' which is a classist Chilean Spanish slang term used to describe the urban youth of low socio-economic standing involved in crime who are reknowned for wearing Nike Dunks. Another example of a racially charged Nike dilemma occurred in Britain, one of the countries this commercial targeted, and involved the Nike sneaker the 'Air Stab' being pulled from shelves and production as it was found to be connected to Englands prominence of knife related violence (i.e. stabbings). That shoe was first launched in 1988 but the socio-cultural climate in England in 2008 and prominence of knife related violence led to the product being pulled and banned. The 'Air Stab' targeted hip-hop culture, whose memebership in England consists of the bulk of crime related persons. Another example of a race based Nike advertisement is an advertisement for the 'Hyper Dunk' sneaker that co
nsists of an African American basketball player dunking over a white basketball player. This commercial plays with stereotypes of white and black basketball players visually drawing the conclusion of African American basketball dominance. The African American basketball player pictured is obviously the better basketball player and athlete as he is clearly jumping over the white player but the ad line 'Now You Know' hammers this point home. The imagery put forth in the ad is interesting as there is a lot of racial subtext to be read in many different ways. The sexual subtext seems to be implied through the African American basketball player having his hand around his crotch and the white basketball player having his hand on the African basketball players butt reads with the text 'Now You Know' that there is a certain homosexual subtext to the image. The white players facial expression is also suggestive of this. The text itself directly suggests 'Now you know I'm better than you' but could also be read as 'now you know what it feels like to be below someone of another race'. The construction of the image has many interpretations and that is what I find the most interesting part of it. My personal reading of the image was that the sport basketball is predominantly dominated by African Americans and now the white guy pictured knows that. I found it to be almost a satire of the athletic ability of white basketball players against that of black basketball players, the image depicting to me the dominance of African Americans in basketball.
nsists of an African American basketball player dunking over a white basketball player. This commercial plays with stereotypes of white and black basketball players visually drawing the conclusion of African American basketball dominance. The African American basketball player pictured is obviously the better basketball player and athlete as he is clearly jumping over the white player but the ad line 'Now You Know' hammers this point home. The imagery put forth in the ad is interesting as there is a lot of racial subtext to be read in many different ways. The sexual subtext seems to be implied through the African American basketball player having his hand around his crotch and the white basketball player having his hand on the African basketball players butt reads with the text 'Now You Know' that there is a certain homosexual subtext to the image. The white players facial expression is also suggestive of this. The text itself directly suggests 'Now you know I'm better than you' but could also be read as 'now you know what it feels like to be below someone of another race'. The construction of the image has many interpretations and that is what I find the most interesting part of it. My personal reading of the image was that the sport basketball is predominantly dominated by African Americans and now the white guy pictured knows that. I found it to be almost a satire of the athletic ability of white basketball players against that of black basketball players, the image depicting to me the dominance of African Americans in basketball. I found both the 'Stand Up' advertisement and 'Now You Know' advertisement to be interesting examples of the shift in hegemony alluded to by Klein that is capable of redefining the cultural representations of race. At the same time however I could not help but notice that as these ads attempt to do this they still perpetuate racism and stereotypes as the best footballers in the world still experience racism and the stereotype of African American basketball prominence and aggression is perpetuated by the 'Now You Know' ad.
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