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Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
October 14, 1997
Re: Nike Poetry Slam
Dear Mr. Espada:
The enclosed package contains what we hope will be an unusual and interesting project for you.
We are developing a series of four commercials, which will be aired on national television during the 1998 Winter Olympics. Each commercial will feature an outstanding and inspiring female athlete, sponsored by our client, Nike.
We hope these short films will celebrate the poetry of competition and athletics by using your words.
Detail follows in the proposal. All poems need to be submitted, using shipping materials to be provided, by November 1, 1997.
We are anxious to know about your participation and would like to confirm your involvement by October 22. If you have questions, please feel free to call me [...] As well, we would like to confirm your involvement and address for delivery of video and shipping materials by October22 with a call to the same number.
In advance, we thank you for your time to review and respond.
Sincerely,
Cindy Fluitt
Producer
A PROPOSAL TO A FEW SELECT POETS
FOR THE NIKE POETRY SLAM
This year's Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan will be unlike any before. Women will compete in greater numbers, in more sports. And for perhaps the first time, a large number of female competitors will be athletes who grew up feeling empowered, supported and equal to their male counterparts when it came to athletic opportunities, facilities and training.
It is a rare, historic change and with your help, we want to applaud it.
We would like to celebrate four of the most remarkable of the new women athletes in a series of commercial films that will run during the Olympic telecasts. And we'd like to do it through the eyes of artists like yourselves. You each have a voice, outlook and perspective on the world that we feel mirrors, in some fashion, the spirit these athletes possess.
Read the accompanying biographies of Picabo Street, Dawn Staley, Cammi Granato and Mia Hamm. Watch the videotapes. If you don't know these athletes now, we feel sure you'll soon find them unique:
uniquely committed to the rigors of sport at the highest levels, uniquely aware of their roles in history.
Then write about one of them. Or each of them. Or all of them at once. It could be about their roles in the world of sports, their individual styles, the significance of their contributions.
Ultimately, of course, you are free to write anything you want. We will not censor your thoughts or opinions or feelings. You don't have to write about shoes or even mention Nike. This is not meant to be a commercial: It is meant to be a showcase for these athletes and for your work. (For legal reasons, you should not include references to the Olympics, Games or medals and keep in mind TV network standards and practices regarding content and language).
It must be possible for your poem to be read aloud in less than 30 seconds. (Otherwise, we may have to edit your piece for time.) Unfortunately, the mechanics of commerce outweigh the demands of art in this instance.
You may submit your work to us in writing, or even better, videotape yourself reading the piece.
We will be illustrating the poems in short films that will work rather like rock videos. Perhaps you will be in the film, perhaps not. Creative input will be welcome, but remains the responsibility of the creative team and client.
All poems submitted become the property of Nike, with rights to display, edit for length and publish. There is $250 fee paid for one or more submissions by November 1 and a $2500 prize if we choose your work for the project. If you would prefer, we will donate this prize to a charity of your choice.
We are also approaching a few select high schools for poetry submissions from their students.
Videotapes, releases and shipping information will be forthcoming when we determine your interest and availability
Thank you and good luck. We look forward to hearing your work.
October 22, 1997
Cindy Fluitt, Producer
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
720 California Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
Re: Nike Poetry Slam
Dear Ms. Fluitt:
This is a letter in response to your correspondence concerning the Nike Poetry Slam and my proposed participation.
I could reject your offer based on the fact that your deadline is ludicrous (i.e., ten days from the above date). A poem is not a pop tart.
I could reject your offer based on the fact that I would not be free to write whatever I want, notwithstanding your assurances to the contrary, since I must "keep in mind TV network standards and practices regarding content and language." You clearly have no idea what the word "censorship" means. Where, as you put it, "the mechanics of commerce outweigh the demands of art," then de facto censorship will flourish.
I could reject your offer based on the fact that, to make this offer to me in the first place, you must be totally and insultingly ignorant of my work as a poet, which strives to stand against all that you and your client represent. Whoever referred me to you did you a grave disservice.
I could reject your offer based on the fact that your client, Nike, has through commercials such as these outrageously manipulated the youth market, so that even low-income adolescents are compelled to buy products they do not need at prices they cannot afford.
Ultimately, however, I am rejecting your offer as a protest against the brutal labor practices of Nike. I will not associate myself with a company that engages in the well-documented exploitation of workers in sweatshops. Please spare me the usual corporate response: there's no problem, and besides, we're working on it. I suggest, instead, that you take the $2500 you now dangle before me and distribute that money equally among the laborers in an Asian sweatshop doing business with Nike. The funds would be much more useful to them than to me. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Martin Espada
