2001: ‘Contagious Media was the reason I was sitting on [the Today Show] couch with Katie Couric…’ (part 2 of 3).
Image by followthethings.com
Previously, in the Nike iD emails saga, www.flickr.com/photos/followthethings/12721556225/in/phot…
—-
As Peretti observed, based on the flood of responses he received, the message first circulated on the Internet among sweatshop activists, culture-jammers and their broader networks of friends through the micromedia of E-mail. Then it made its way to “middle media” sites such as weblogs and webzines. From there, in Peretti’s words, “…something interesting happened. The micromedia message worked its way into the mass media” (Source: Bennett 2004 16).
The Today Show and other mainstream media sources picked up the story, even though they tend to ignore the activists who dedicate their lives to fighting sweatshop labor and human rights abuses. Contagious Media was the reason I was sitting on the couch with Katie Couric instead of someone who actually knows something about sweatshop labor (Source: Chung 2005 np).
On February 28th, 2001, Peretti made an appearance on NBC’s Today Show, facing Nike’s spokeperson and Director of Global Issues Management Vada Manager in a debate moderated by Katie Couric (Source: knowyourmeme 2011 np).
… the manager said custom shoe sales on the Nike iD site reached their third-highest single day total on Wednesday after the “Today’’ show segment. “In retrospect, he probably did us a favour.’’ (Source: Tomberry 2010 np ).
The rather comedic event … got the most media attention and served to make Nike look somewhat ridiculous (Source: DeWinter-Schmit 2007 p.390).
—-
See what happened next (possibly) 13 years later on a visit to the UK, here www.flickr.com/photos/followthethings/12704315945/in/phot…
—-
Quotes taken from a forthcoming page on www.followthethings.com
Research by Jack Parkin
Read the original emails here www.shey.net/niked.html
For a transcript of the TV discussion, see contagiousmedia.org/press/nike/nike-today.htm
See the original TV show screenshot we’ve ‘re-created’ here i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/060/892/Me_Nike…
For more information, see knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/nike-id-sweatshop-e-mail-co…
NBC logo (with CC license) taken from here commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NBC_Halloween.png
Modified sneaker graphic (with CC license) taken from here openclipart.org/detail/28152/sideview-sneaker-by-gingerco…
Nike swoosh logo (with CC license) taken from here commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Logo_NIKE.svg
Legoing by Ian Cook