We Win
All right, folks! Here?s a reminder that it pays to speak, to act.
Earlier this week, it came to my attention that Nike was using a knock-off of classic, iconic Minor Threat album cover art to promote a skateboarding tour.
Dischord Records never gave permission to use, never approved of, and never condoned the Nike ad campaign. In fact, they were diametrically opposed to it. Unfortunately, Dischord recognized that they didn’t have the financial resources to mount a legal battle against Nike.
So. I wrote a letter to Nike, essentially calling them out, and I spread the word to the folks on the Mike Watt discussion group on Yahoo!, and to my friends on MySpace. I encouraged everyone to contact their own mailing lists (most or many including many, many more people than I could reach) and we got viral on the whole thing.
Today, Nike issued an apology and removed the image from the media, both in print and online.
Fuck yeah.
I’m not saying I’m responsible. I’m saying it feels good to stand for DIY, for what’s right, and it feels good to be involved in something that … in a matter of less than 100 hours… changed the course of a megacorporation that has had a history of shitting on the little guy.
Yay us. Fuckin’ aye.
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[...] I’m proud of the run — I played music that wasn’t heard anywhere else in the podosphere. I believe I introduced the medium to Jonathan Coulton, Samantha Murphy, Caldwell Shine, and a few others — or at least I was one of the first to play those artists. I fought publicly against Viacom’s KYOU and Nike’s co-opting of Dischord Records. I was proud to turn money my listeners had originally donated to me over to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, and to support Boxing Day Tsunami relief by promoting the Of Hands And Hearts benefit compilation. [...]