September 22, 2000
"As the Olympics show how far women have come as athletes, a controversial Nike ad served to remind them that they are still potential targets of violence," said National Organization for Women (NOW) President Patricia Ireland. "NBC has pulled the ad, after hundreds of viewers complained about its depiction of a woman chased by a chain-saw wielding man, but it is still running on the WB and ESPN."
NOW received numerous e-mails and calls about the ad, as did Nike and NBC. The messages to NOW came from both women and men who were outraged by the content: a woman in shorts and jogging bra threatened by a Friday the 13th-style maniac.
"The commercial tag line implies that if you exercise you can outrun an out-of-shape killer," Ireland said. "But for many of us who saw the ad, the lasting impression was the terror of the woman and the ferociousness of the masked man. That the woman in the ad is a real Olympian only makes it more disturbing. Why can't women sit down to watch the competition of accomplished athletes without being subjected to menace and mayhem? Why do network and sales executives think the degradation of women is acceptable as entertainment and marketing strategy?"
Last spring, NOW's Watch Out, Listen Up! campaign examined the four major television networks and rated their primetime programming. This fall NOW plans to expand Watch Out, Listen Up! and will concentrate on the portrayal of women in advertising. NOW aims to issue a report toward the end of the year, much like May's Feminist Primetime Report, which will review ads on TV, good and bad. As with the previous analysis, NOW monitors will take note of advertisers' use of stereotypes, sexual exploitation and violence, while looking for diversity, positive images and social responsibility.
"This week television viewers proved they have the power to keep offensive images off the airwaves," Ireland said. "NOW has joined the voices of the people who want to take back control of the media from those who are only concerned with the bottom line."