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NIKE'S COMMERCIAL SOLUTION

Girls, Sneakers, and Salvation

University of Iowa, USA

In this article I critically examine the ways in which Nike has situated itself as an active participant in current cultural conversations about girls' and women's participation in sport through three television commercials: `If you let me play', `There's a girl being born in America', and `The Fun Police'. In these advertisements, Nike positions itself as helping girls get a chance to play sports, helping them lead healthier and happier lives, helping them learn the rules of the game, and helping them to have fun. However, I argue that Nike's suggestion that girls can be empowered through sport (and through Nike's efforts) occurs within a framework of discourses appearing in the commercials that, in effect, constrains girls by representing them as lacking their own agency.

Key Words: advertising • girls • Nike • sport • women

International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 35, No. 2, 149-164 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/101269000035002002


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