Word: nike
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...much. Lafester was six the last time he saw his father, and his mother had two failing kidneys. The family lived on her Social Security and disability checks. Lafester was excited and confused by the swarming recruiters (he still keeps their letters in a Nike shoe box under his bed). "I didn't really know what was happening," he says. "I didn't have a father to guide me, so I decided...
...English-speaking TV viewers, the phrase might have meant anything: "Mayieu kuna. Ijooki inamuk sapukin." So when a recent TV commercial for Nike sneakers featured a traditionally dressed Samburu tribesman in Kenya uttering those words in Maa, the local tongue, an English subtitle was thoughtfully provided: "Just do it," which is the slogan from Nike's current campaign...
...Kenyan's comments were not quite as advertised. According to an anthropologist at the University of Cincinnati, who saw the spot when it aired on NBC, the new pitchman was actually saying, "I don't want these. Give me big shoes." Nike contends that an earlier script called for the tribesman's ironic comment, but the company decided in the end to stick with its slogan in the subtitle. Nike plans to keep running the spot during TV specials, so viewers will still have an opportunity to brush up on their...
...high school that Jordan began a lifelong obsession with basketball shoes. "There is something about new basketball sneakers that makes you feel better and play better," he says. Nike, Inc., was smart enough to exploit that passion. The firm had done reasonably well with its running shoes, but his namesake black-and-red Air Jordan sneakers put Nike on the basketball-shoe map in 1985 and sent its revenues into orbit, helping to generate more than $70 million in sales the first year. During the season, Jordan satisfies the dreams of dozens of admiring fans by giving away a pair...
...ProServ, a Washington-based sports marketing firm, Jordan will earn an estimated $5 million off the court this year. His list of corporate endorsements keeps growing: Chevrolet, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Johnson Products (personal-care items produced by one of the largest black-owned businesses in the U.S.), Nike. And last fall Jordan became the first basketball player ever to appear on a box of Wheaties...