Contact: Macreena Doyle St. Lawrence University 315-229-5587 [email protected]
NEW BOOK BY SLU PROF LOOKS AT 'CULTURE' OF NIKE
CANTON, N.Y. - A new book co-authored by a St. Lawrence University professor takes a look at the cultural contradictions found between advertising done by Nike and the company's actual practices.
"Nike Culture," by Robert Goldman, professor of sociology at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and Stephen Papson, professor of sociology at St. Lawrence, has just been published by Sage Publications.
Blending themes of personal empowerment and transcendence with media irreverence, advertising campaigns launched by Nike have promoted the company to the top of the sports-shoe and apparel industry. Its "swoosh" logo is now globally pervasive and "Nike" has become synonymous with sports culture.
The book describes and deconstructs the themes and structures of Nike's advertising, outlining contradictions between image and practice, including representations of race, class and gender. It is one of the first studies to take an in-depth look at how an advertising image works, exposing the psychology, sociology, culture and semiotics of the Nike "swoosh" logo.
Goldman and Papson are also co-authors of the 1998 book "Sign Wars: The Cluttered Landscape of Advertising."
-30-
RSS