Nike's marketing of social responsibility

Carol Stabile tells us "how multinational corporations produce and manage their public images" (197). The example of Nike reveals the push and force it initiated to spread its name out there and advertise its products - for example competing with Reebok. It is no surprise that Nike's aggressive advertising sparked the "sneaker wars" with Reebok. Shockingly it took a toll on the outside American society - mainly the projects in inner-cities, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, South Central L.A. and many other unreported news; but these killings/homicides show how media and advertising strongly affect and shape the viewers' minds. In this case, the sneakers I find this incident quite scary but also ironic and I will explain why I think so. At the height of its career, Nike initiated a goal many other corporations follow and that is "all about trying to find some status in the world" (197). And of course with this goal accomplished through the media, Nike has a fairly average very well-rounded popular rating amongst its consumers. However, the ironic part is that while Nike is trying to make a good name for itself, stand for good values, and promote equality by working with African American spokespersons, we can't forget that Nike has another social responsibility that deals with the actual means of producing the products -- and what groups of people exactly do that. Well obviously poor class minorities take on the jobs in the sweatshop production factories. These are are low paying jobs that (for example) "Vietnamese women who make Nike shoes, working 12-hour days for a wage between $2.10 and $2.40 a day, are kept off the screen" (201). That is unethical and the values of Nike, promoting equality and positivism, are lacking there tremendously. Its message to the overall public is sometimes not realistic because "Nike's commitment to 'social responsibility' because the contradiction between corporate production and employment practices and chronic unemployment practices in African American communities remains outside the screen or printed page" (201). However, as these issues are coming to mind and are starting to globalize, I am sure Nike is initiating changes to improving its reputation, quality of production and quality of advertising.