Thursday September 2, 2010
Nike releases new uniform ad, minus mine image
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Coal is out of the picture: The latest version of an ad promoting a Nike Pro Combat football uniform for the West Virginia Mountaineers shows a stadium rather than a strip mine behind a player.
Nike revised the ad Thursday after environmentalists complained about the depiction of a mountaintop removal mine behind the image of a uniform intended to honor 29 men killed in the Upper Big Branch mine blast.
That mine was an underground operation.
Activists said the ad appeared to be a tacit endorsement of mountaintop removal by both Nike and WVU.
Both insisted that wasn't their intention.
Nike says it designed the black and white uniforms as a tribute to the state's coal mining heritage.
They'll be worn in the Backyard Brawl at Pittsburgh Nov. 26.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Coal is out of the picture: The latest version of an ad promoting a Nike Pro Combat football uniform for the West Virginia Mountaineers shows a stadium rather than a strip mine behind a player.
Nike revised the ad Thursday after environmentalists complained about the depiction of a mountaintop removal mine behind the image of a uniform intended to honor 29 men killed in the Upper Big Branch mine blast.
That mine was an underground operation.
Activists said the ad appeared to be a tacit endorsement of mountaintop removal by both Nike and WVU.
Both insisted that wasn't their intention.
Nike says it designed the black and white uniforms as a tribute to the state's coal mining heritage.
They'll be worn in the Backyard Brawl at Pittsburgh Nov. 26.
