Nike’s ad campaign for this month’s London Marathon led to some major faith-related pushback.
Spectators and social media users took issue with a billboard that said “Never Again. Until Next Year,” arguing that Nike should have avoided the phrase “Never Again,” which is generally associated with the Holocaust.
“Never Again is as iconic a phrase as Just Do It. Nike should know better,” wrote Bill Ackman, a prominent hedge fund manager, on X.
In a follow-up post, Ackman said it’s hard to imagine why no one at Nike raised concerns about the ad.
“I assume that this was unintentional, but it is hard to imagine that there was no one at Nike, on the marketing team, at their advertising firm, banner manufacture etc. who didn’t know or who didn’t think to Google the words ‘Never again,’” he wrote.
Similarly, Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights lawyer, described the ad as “in poor taste” in an X post.
“Seriously Nike? You posted this massive billboard in London for the Marathon. I don’t believe for a second there was any ill malice, but please understand the concern with using the words ‘Never Again’, what they represent and why this was in poor taste,” he wrote.
In a Monday statement to reporter Louis Keene of The Forward, Nike apologized for any harm it caused with the billboards.
The company noted in its statement that the London Marathon ad campaign was built around phrases commonly used by runners.
Another billboard in the series read “Remember why you signed up for this.”
“The London billboards were part of a broader campaign titled ‘Winning Isn’t Comfortable,’ built on runners’ insights and designed to motivate runners to push past what they think is possible,” Nike’s statement said.
History of phrase ‘Never Again’
Although the Nike drama is unique, “Never Again” has been used outside the context of the Holocaust before.
For example, after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, students used the hashtag #NeverAgain to promote protests in favor of gun control across the country, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The students, like Nike, faced pushback over their use of the phrase.
“For a second it felt like cultural appropriation, but I doubt the kids knew this or did it intentionally,” one Jewish woman observed on social media at the time, as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.
The article noted that the phrase became associated with the Holocaust in the 1960s and 1970s. It was originally a call to armed resistance, but it’s been transformed into a message of peace.
The “violent call for action was adapted by American Jewish establishment groups and Holocaust commemoration institutions as a call for peace, tolerance and heeding the warning signs of genocide,” per Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
London Marathon results
The London Marathon took place on Sunday.
Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s race in 2:02:27. according to The Associated Press. Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia won the women’s race in 2:15:50.