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PUSHING THE ENVELOPE Always pushing the envelope, a Nike ad called Dri-Goat appeared in outdoor magazines. The offending copy: "Right about now, you’re probably asking yourself, ‘How can a trail running shoe with an outer sole designed like a goat’s hoof help me avoid compressing my spinal cord into a Slinky on the side of some unsuspecting conifer. Thereby rendering me a drooling, misshapen non-extreme-trail running husk of my former self. Forced to roam the earth in a motorized wheelchair with my name embossed on one of those cute little license plates you get at carnivals or state fairs, fastened to the back?" In this age of paraplegic Olympics, Nike forgot for a moment that cute copy is not so powerful as bar PR. The disabilities rights groups cried foul, because the "drooling, misshapen non-extreme-trail running husk" was unmistakably making fun of people not so fortunate. The chief of Nike’s ad agency, Weiden and Kennedy apologized. "We have stepped over the line with this ad, and there is no excuse for it", he said. "For myself personally and for this ad agency I deeply apologize. I only wish there were a way to run the clock backwards." Can they turn back the clock?
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