Ryan Bishop
English Comp
Bleck
1/26/10
Who Pays for Prosperity
Back in high school, I used to frequently receive free shoes, shirts, and other paraphernalia from Nike. They have also paid for flights for me to compete in races in other cities, the hotel and food while I stay there, and my doctor’s bill after I got injured during one of their sponsored races. There is so much wealth that this company has, that they are willing to give it away to support athletes like I was to become their best. However, who is really paying the cost? Were the shoes I received free? Did my flight get paid for out of Nike CEO, Phil Knight’s paycheck? In the book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair he writes, “It was a summer of prosperity, all over the country, and the country ate generously of packinghouse products, and there was plenty of work for all the family” (Sinclair 127). What this quote explains is the glory of prosperous times for the upper class eating well, and the workers who have jobs. What the quote doesn’t point out is the plight of the workers in the packing houses or the unreliability of their jobs when money tightens up. There are always people paying for the prosperity of others. In the case of Sinclair’s book and in sweatshops around the world today, those paying in hard labour to keep our prices low are foreign workers. The video Nike Sweatshops raise awareness in viewers to the problem with sweatshops specifically from the sports apparel giant, Nike. We are going to analyze this video to see how well it proves its point.

The video has one feature that flows through its entire length: the music. The music is beat-oriented techno that seems familiar to a Nike advertisement. Right from the start, the viewers mind is filled with memories of past commercials. This video uses music, as well as the first few pictures, to weed out viewers who aren’t familiar with the company of topic. The music is the only sound that is heard throughout the video. It continues the same as the pictures turn from the faces of famous athletes to those of dejected workers. It continues through stats of enormous wealth just as it plays behind stats of the ill-practices towards foreign workers. The statement this music makes is that all of these stats and pictures tie together under the name, Nike.

Pictures make up the majority of the visual section of the video. They show several famous athletes. The golfer, Tiger Woods in his Nike baseball cap. Basketball star, Lebron James in his Nike shoes. Tennis sensation, Serena Williams, footballers, Ronaldo Nazario and David Figueroa all dressed head to toe in Nike clothing. These pictures serve to create a human-target for any backlash against sweatshops. The video takes rich athletes and, since they are cover-people for Nike, their hero qualities of wealth and fame are passed off as greed and ill-gain. However, the video doesn’t just show the multimillionaires wearing Nikes; it also has a clip of a student lacing up his shoes. This brings into thought the fact that we, the people, are part of the corporate beast. Heroes, friends, and all those in between, there is no one group that is the problem, it is all Nike consumers.

One thing to notice in the pictures of the people is what they are wearing. When one sees the fancy uniforms that the athletes wear, it is easy to toss them into a category as being Nike supporters. The athletes, however, are just more people of the system. They are wearing the clothes provided to them, and doing their job. We cannot label them as the problem, which is so easy to do. These athletes are illustrations of the difference between the extremes on both ends of the pay scale of Nike. What we can do is use their wealth and fancy clothes as a comparison when we see the condition of the workers.

The key element when the video starts showing pictures of the workers is emotion-communicating face. Actually, the better way of saying that would be a lack of emotion communicating. The workers seem lost amongst the masses of shoes all around them. They seem to be hard at work, and don’t seem as passionate about their work as the athletes. Is this because of a lack of incentive? Or is it a problem with the workers? This would be an unanswered question in the video; a question that one would have to look into on their own.

Behind the workers are shoes and machinery. While all the athletes are shown in open fields, giving off a hue of freedom, the workers are all shown with the mundane glow of fluorescent lights being the only thing to brighten their day. This provides an emotive case for all Americans who believe in “Liberty and justice for all.” What liberty is there within the confines of a factory? What justice lets a company pay out $476 million dollars in one year in endorsements to athletes, while Indonesian workers get paid $1.25 a day? These are both stats stated in the video. There is a flavor of injustice amidst the magnanimity of this huge company.

In two minutes, the video never really had a chance to fully expose the problems of sweatshops. It barely scratches the surface with one of the companies that partake in this means for production. What one needs to get out of watching Nike Sweatshops is a desire to find out more. Having read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, it no longer seems impossible for the economy of a country so set on freedom and equality as America is to be built on the backs of unjustly treated workers. If we are willing to overlook the suffering of the workers in our own country, why would we be above ignoring the plight of workers in other countries. When it comes down to it, somebody paid a price for the Nike shoes that I received for free. What needs to be asked is: are these shoes worth my comfort even though it may be hurting so many others?