Nike Ad To Be Used Despite Complaints

BEAVERTON, Ore. - Nike Inc. said yesterday it will continue to run an ad that an advocacy group claims trivializes mental illness.

The print ad, featuring wide receiver Jerry Rice of Mississippi Valley State, refers to an athlete's inner voice, Nike spokesman Dusty Kidd said.

The Alliance for the Mentally Ill of New York State, based in Albany, N.Y., said hearing voices is a symptom of schizophrenia, a serious and common mental illness. More than 2 million young people will be struck by the disease this year, spokeswoman Norma Weinerth said.

"Advocates of the mentally ill object to words such as crazy, wacky, schizo, those sorts of words," Weinerth said in a telephone interview from New York. "We also object to the trivialization of catastrophic mental illnesses, such as their use in advertising."

Kidd said that's not the kind of inner voice to which the ad referred. Rather, he said, it was meant to be inspirational.

The ad begins:

"Mother and father told you repeatedly.

"Crazy people talk to themselves.

"Still you heard the voice.

"Loud and clear.

"Just Do It.

"Learn how to hit a fastball.

"Work on your left-hand shot.

"Study harder. Study longer.

"Get a raise."

It concludes:

"Crazy people talk to themselves."

"And finally, you realize, only a madman doesn't listen."

Alliance members complained that the ad is a flippant reference to mental illness to sell shoes.

Kidd said Nike did agree to cancel billboards purchased cooperatively with New York department stores using the slogan "multiple personalities."

"The ad was a picture of a cross-training shoe with the headline: `multiple personalities.' Given our heightened sensitivity, we agreed we would not pursue billboards along that line," he said.

However, Nike saw nothing objectionable about the Rice magazine ads.

The ad ran in Sports Illustrated, Gentleman's Quarterly and Esquire, among other magazines aimed at 20- to 40-year-old men, Kidd said.