Moore: Twelve-year-olds working in [Indonesian] factories? That's O.K. with you?
Knight: They're not 12-year-olds working in factories... The minimum age is 14.
Moore: How about 14, then? Doesn't that bother you?
Knight: No.
--Nike CEO Phil Knight talking to director Michael Moore in a scene from The Big One
What was Phil Knight thinking when he agreed to appear in Michael Moore's just released movie? If he actually trusted the populist filmmaker to intervene as Knight went postal on camera and started pumping round after round into his own foot, then Nike's founder is even more out of touch than legend has it. Who volunteers for an ambush interview and then, to compound his error, publicly condemns the outcome?
Moore, skilled at paying out rope to his victims (and then charging them for it), later agreed to meet with Nike spokesman Lee Weinstein to discuss damage control. Nike had two problems with the interview, Weinstein explained. First, it was unfair to include Knight's endorsement of a 14-year-old labor force while leaving out his subsequent pledge to make a transition to 16-year-olds (a difficult task, says Nike, given the workers' propensity for using "forged documents"). Second, Knight referred to his employees as "poor little Indonesian workers," a characterization that failed to convey the respect in which he held them. In both instances, Weinstein insisted, Phil had "misspoken." What would it take to make these two classic moments go away?
Moore decided to deal. He couldn't remove anything from the movie, he told Weinstein, but if Nike were to build a facility in Flint, Mich., he'd add a new scene. Heartened, Weinstein whipped out a notepad. Would that be a shoe factory or a warehouse? Moore, who can't keep a straight face at gunpoint, fought back tears of incredulity. Anything that'll employ 500 people at a livable wage, he replied. Weinstein promised to get back to him.
Moore is still waiting, of course. But like the rest of America, he can't seem to get through a day without experiencing some sort of Nike moment. Recently he was sitting in a waiting room in Hollywood when he was greeted by a studio president toting two large Nike shopping bags. Curious, Moore asked why the executive was shopping for athletic gear in the middle of his workday. Simple, the mogul replied, you can't beat the price.
Especially when there isn't one. As it turned out, Moore's friend had just returned from a special Nike outlet in Marina del Rey. Unlike your average NikeTown, this facility gives admission by pass only. And you can't get a pass unless you're tight with an affable young promotions manager named Tracy Hardy-Gray, known industrywide as "Tracy the Nike Lady."