Nike Pulls Homophobic Ads

Nike has announced that it has canceled its "That Ain't Right" campaign after it was widely criticized as homophobic by gay bloggers and advertising critics. Via ESPN, here is Nike's statement:

Nike is strongly opposed to discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting athletes regardless of their sexual orientation. The advertisement in question is based purely upon a common insight from within the game of basketball -- the athletic feat of dunking on the opposition, and is not intended to be offensive.

However, after listening to concerns expressed around specific executions, we have decided to drop them from the campaign to underline our ongoing commitment to supporting diversity in sport and the workplace.

Nike has a strong record of support for diversity and is proud to have been honored with a 100 percent score over several consecutive years in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index.

ESPN notes that the most offensive images (including the one posted above) have been removed from the site of the creative agency, Wieden+Kennedy.

Good for Nike and good for Wieden+Kennedy. I don't know what they were thinking.

That Ain't Right, Nike

Via The Gay Recluse comes word of the latest Nike campaign, which features a series of athletes "humiliated" by having their faces pushed into the crotches of other players. Tag lines on the "That Ain't Right" campaign include “Your mama won’t let you come home after this. What would she tell the neighbors?” The ad was created by Wieden+Kennedy.

Non-consensual tea-bagging = gay-mocking hilarity. Yup, a regular riot. Nike is playing on the inherent homophobia of straight athletes, men who must continually compensate for their sweaty physical contact with other males by simultaneously bleating about their heterosexuality at the same time they accuse each other of secretly enjoying all that manly man-touching.

What is Nike selling here besides the idea that gay sex is humiliating?

Worst. Ad. Of. The. Year.