MARIA McCLOY reports on an ongoing dispute between sportswear manufacturer Nike and the popular cartoon Doonesbury
THE impact of cartoons seems to be stronger than most thought, judging by the reaction of sportswear billion-dollar giant Nike to Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury cartoon strip that runs in newpapers round the world, including the Mail & Guardian.
The cause of the fuss is the strip’s depiction of a character who comments that workers in Vietnam’s Nike factories did not earn enough to eat. In the Seattle Times, which ran the strip in May 1997, the cartoon showed a worker saying “I cannot even afford to eat on $1,60 a day.” Doonesbury also depicts the outrage of a Vietnamese American over factory conditions after visiting a cousin working at a Vitnamese Nike factory.
This week Johanna McDowell, who heads Integrated Communications – the public relations company handling Nike’s image – wrote a letter of complaint to the Mail & Guardian. “We are concerned … that Nike … is presented in a very poor light concerning labour relations … in Vietnam,” she wrote. “We believe that the cartoon should be reviewed by your editorial team in the light of the commentary we attach.”
McDowell also sent a copy of independent research done by Human Rights campaigner Andrew Young, who found no evidence or pattern of widespread or systematic abuse of workers in the 12 factories he visited in Vietnam.
In a letter to Hong Kong’s South China Post, which also carries the Doonesbury cartoon strip, the Director of Nike Asia Pacific communications, Martha Benson, disclaimed the cartoon character’s comments. She insisted that meals in Vietnam cost nine cents on average (apparently a response to the $1,60 a day allegation) and that workers could save enough to send money home. She also claimed that workers receive free medical care, English lessons and training.
But Benson’s claims have been disputed by Thuyen Nguyen of Vietnam Labour Watch. South African cartoonists Zapiro and Madame and Eve’s Harry Dugmore, agree that Doonesbury has moved the year-old debate surrounding Nike and Vietnam from an editorial realm into popular consciousness.
The cartoon strip is syndicated in 1 400 papers worldwide by The Universal Press Syndicate. According to the editorial director, Lee Salem, Universal Press has not been approached directly by Nike in connection with the Vietnam controversy. “It’s within their rights to disagree … but Gary [Trudeau] had a lot to back it up.”
Generally speaking, political strips are relatively innocuous, says Dugmore. “But Doonesbury pushes the envelope. That’s why he’s so admired.”