It’S The Shoes, Stupid
OK, raise your hand if you were one of the irate callers to NBC after viewing the Nike commercial featuring a scantily clad woman being pursued by a chain-saw-wielding goon.
Nike said it was only trying to be funny, and to make the point that being athletic prolongs life.
Apparently a few people didn’t get the humor and, as reported Tuesday, the commercial was yanked by NBC.
The banned ad looks like a trailer for a slasher movie. As Olympic 1,500-meter runner Suzy Favor Hamilton strips down for a bath in a remote cabin, a man in a hockey mask - the signature of “Friday the 13th” star Jason - suddenly emerges from the shadows and begins chasing the terrified Hamilton with a chain saw.
The gag is that Hamilton runs 1,500 meters in about 4 minutes; a maniac with a chain saw doesn’t. As Hamilton bounds away, the Jason guy gives up, exhausted and wheezing. Cue Nike’s Olympic slogan: “Why sport? You’ll live longer.”
With all the controversy surrounding the ad, perhaps bringing the ad back would be just the thing NBC needs to boost its sagging Olympics coverage.
Is it the shoes?
Woody Paige of the Denver Post, on three 7-foot Chinese basketball players in the Olympics: “`It is rumored there are another 100 really tall young people back home playing basketball.
“What are they feeding them? Certainly not egg rolls, because I’d be an 8-footer.”
News with mold
Art Spander in the Oakland Tribune, on NBC delaying the telecasts of the Olympics: “This just in: Roger Bannister has broken the 4-minute mile.”
The last word …
“Now they are giving every male Olympic athlete 51 condoms for their visit to Sydney. Remember when it was fashionable for Olympic athletes to show friendship by exchanging pins?”
- Jerry Greene in the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel.