In other Wieden news, Nike has dropped a billboard advertisement for their new Hyperdunks in response to critics who are complaining that the ads were insensitive to gay men and African-Americans. The ad is pictured above in all its tea-bagging glory.
Oddly, W+K posted an entry to their website titled, Hypersensitive, y’all? that garnered backlash galore.
Here’s a sampling of the comments from that post on the W+K Studio blog:
1. “Whether your gay or not, tea bagging is just unsavory.”
2. “Maybe its kinda hypersensitive, still, not a right campaign at all. Its focus its bigoted.”
3. “[sic] your firm is clueless if you think this is not offensive. and next time write better copy when you have your frat boy friends post on here…. oh, and yes, you are all twats…”
4. “I don’t think that an image of two guys playing basketball and accidentally meeting face-crotch has anything to do with gays. it’s just gross, thus “that ain’t right”. it saddens me that there are people that assume that THAT has to do anything with sexual orientation, sexuality for that matter or an opinion of it. really, it’s a sport, that’s the context. nothing to do with sex or gays. really sad anyone might think that. it’s not hypersensitivity, it’s degradation.”
And here’s a rebuttal from one of the staffers:
“Yes, our firm is homophobic and clueless. That’s why we hired an openly gay spokesperson (Neil Patrick Harris) for a huge mass-market Old Spice deodorant campaign. And of course since we are headquartered in Portland, Oregon (one of the most liberal and progressive cities in the U.S.), we must be a bunch of inbred red-staters instead of a diverse workforce that hails from nearly every corner of the globe. It’s OK to air your grievances about a particular ad that was the result of a particular group’s creative process; but it’s weak to use close-minded and reductive rhetoric to try and make your point. Furthermore, as a basketball fan with many gay friends (I know, I know…), I would have to throw my hat in with the camp that believes this ad is about the unpleasant act of getting dunked on.”
Clearly, someone over there took debate at Columbia. Look at how smarty-farty they are, like all the time.You know you wanna work there. You know it!