A recent letter from the Vice President of Communications at Nike, which was perhaps inappropriately shared, has controversy brewing. Apparently, one Amanda Miller contacted one New York Times writer Joe Nocera in an attempt to pitch him some sort of stroller. Nike Communications is a public relations firm that sells expensive stuff. Joe, and everyone else who responded in the comments section of his blog about the letter, was offended, or at least annoyed. You see, Ms. Miller referred to children as accessories. This is nothing new--people have worn their babies since, well, since they've been having them. What we carry them in, as opposed to on us, has changed, but little else.
Oh, perhaps there was a time not so long ago when women didn't really leave the house and therefore, when with child (in or out of the womb) they didn't leave either, which meant no one really saw much of children until they were working age. But now, all that has changed. Now celebrities can be seen with their spawn doing whatever it is they do when they're not busy making the millions required to purchase the kind of stroller Ms. Miller is suggesting to the tune of $1,000.
Celebrities procreate--many of them doing so two at a time--and then they show them off to the world. The question is no longer what those celebrity moms are wearing, but what their babies are IN. That's right--out with Halston, and in with the Phil & Ted's chic stroller, and their new Traveller, which is actually just a playpen. Clearly Ms. Miller should be fired. Not for attempting to sell people stuff they don't need at a ridiculous price--after all, it's a PR firm, that's what they get paid to do!--but because Joe Nocera is clearly not her target audience. I can think about at least ten people, all of them women, who would eat up the letter from Ms. Miller and barely wash it down with an iced decaf skim latte before immediately setting out to purchase one. Did I mention I live in New York City? Joe Nocera? Clearly not interested.
Stroller pic by Ed Yourdon.
