ABSTRACT
Every multinational company has its challenges. Back in 1997 Nike created a design to go on the back of one of its basketball shoes-theAir Bakin’—which were fiery flames on the back of the shoe that said, ‘‘Air.’’ However, members of the Muslim community were insulted because the logo looked more like the Arabic script for ‘‘Allah.’’ Since these shoes were being sold in the Middle East, Nike had to recall 38,000 pairs worldwide. Nike had no intent to insult, so it redesigned the logo, but altered it only slightly-unfortunately it was almost identical to the original. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) got involved andNike had to issue an apology and ended up building three playgrounds in three Islamic neighborhoods. This particular sports shoe had been dubbed, the ‘‘Air Allah’’ and had news titles claiming, ‘‘The Air Bakin’ does not speak Arabic’’ (Jury, 1997).
