PR mess continues for Nike as it returns banned tapes

by Sarah Crawley-Boevey, Brand Republic 28-Jul-09, 11:30

LONDON - Nike has been forced deeper into a PR disaster after agreeing to return confiscated videotapes of one of its basketball player ambassadors getting "dunked" by an unknown youngster.

Earlier this month the American sportswear giant made headlines when it took tapes recorded by two accredited journalists at a university basketball game.

The journalists filmed NBA star LeBron James being dunked by amateur Jordan Crawford who was playing in the skills academy run at a US university.

The poor quality footage showed Crawford scoring an easy basket when James was in defence.

The camcorder footage, which did not obviously identify either players, seemed unlikely to make headlines until Nike demanded the tapes from the journalists as, it was claimed, they violated media guidelines which say filming of the skills academy games is not allowed.

Nike bosses have since bowed to pressure and given the tapes back but at the same time drawn extensive attention to the incident which would otherwise have passed largely unnoticed.