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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

Appropriating a public space near you ...

18:48 / 14.10.03

"Phil Knight, co-founder and and chief executive of Nike, is notoriously interview-shy. But this time he wasn't able to withold his euphoria: "I've always had the impression that, for some mysterious reason, urbanism amd architecture have not evolved as fast as other disciplines like design or fashion ..."

Phil, who I'm guessing has never read anything by Venturi or any other architect in his life and patently walks around with his eyes shut, even when visiting his own branded stores, is planning to garner customers by first plunging them into a similar critical darkness by "renaming" public spaces after his product. I've owned one or two pairs of Nikes in my time, but if he comes to my town with this nonsense, well ...

The website has a "contact us" link. You know what to do.

19:04 / 14.10.03

Or not. Having now used my brain (and on-line translation software) I checked it out and it appears to be a spoof. Still what do you think?

15:27 / 15.10.03

...it's scary because it's believable. If they had chosen something other than the Karlsplatz in Vienna, it would be believable...

There is (or was) a gallery in Toronto run by Nike... *pause for search* Story here.

They seem the type of company to go for strange and disturbing ways of marketing, like hiring 'people' to talk to you in bars about how great the shoes are...

16:50 / 15.10.03

or copying Banksy-style grafitti and stencil-graffing ads on walls and stuff. Bastards.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

05:32 / 16.10.03

Is it any different from the Labatt's Apollo (in Hammersmith IIRC) or the Guinness book of Records? Or the Man Booker prize (as The Independent on Sunday said: "Most of the people that have heard of the Booker Prize never actually know what the company did")?

11:31 / 16.10.03

Or even the Tate?

The Apollo used to be called something else, I forget what. But it was always a private space open to ticketholders, whereas a street or a square is very much public.