Did Nike Re-Ink Michael Vick? Hush, Puppies, While We Try to Figure It Out.
Nike's denial that it re-signed Michael Vick as a product endorser smells as rotten as Shaq's sneakers. The shoe giant apparently took much more time than you would think before finally denying the deal. Considering the delicate nature of Vick's return to the National Football League, Nike's embrace of its prodigal son could be too much too soon. I mean, would the dog-killer be all that effective yet as an endorser for Nike?
Maybe for Hush Puppies, but not for sneakers.
One of Vick's agents announced the Nike news yesterday at a big-shit sports sponsorship symposium in New York. The announcement flashed through the Web, prompting many to extreme anger.
Ad Age this afternoon sums up the subsequent timeline that makes Nike's denial so suspect:
Nearly five hours later -- after accounts of Mr. Vick's agents' comments had run on Ad Age, ESPN and in countless other media venues -- a Nike spokesman declined to comment.
All that silence, of course, was widely taken as an affirmation that the marketer had re-signed a convicted felon whose role leading a dog-fighting ring it had earlier labeled "inhumane and abhorrent." And Nike had received plaudits for dropping him after his guilty plea in August 2007.
Later, Nike denied that it was an endorsement deal, saying that it was merely furnishing Vick with "product" to use. Looks for now as if Nike was waiting to gauge the reaction before deciding whether — or just how completely — to deflate its trial balloon.
