Warrior Marketing In Trouble

[JGraz15 53]

I know Warrior has often been criticized for their brash marketing that borders on sexually explicit while targeted at children (a big reason I . They have been toe-ing the line for a long time, and in my view, they have crossed it now. Thoughts?

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish/201211/lacrosse-player-boycotts-equipment-over-racist-slogan

[mcawesome 1]

My thoughts are that the Warrior line is called Ninja, they used "Ninja, please" as their slogan, and now they are getting more coverage than they anticipated (or maybe they did think a backlash was coming?), which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Could they have used a different slogan? Of course. Would it have been better for them? Possibly. Is it going to ruin them? Not at all.

Personally, I feel that there are plenty of black rappers/artists that degrade themselves and women worse than this slogan does.

[badger_14 601]

I agree - some of Warrior's marketing has verged on the vulgar (the Johnson shaft, Stroker gloves), but 'Ninja Please' crosses a different kind of line. Consumers might find the sexual innuendo sophomoric but tolerable, but a harder line would be drawn at racism. Jovan Miller is probably correct here - that someone in marketing intentionally went with the phrasing, and knew what they were doing. That someone (or someones) probably thought it was funny and didn't think it was racist at all, but that's one of the problems here - it's that kind of casual racism (and homophobia, and sexism), the kind that people brush off as 'it was just a joke', that's most insidious.

[Law Goalie 147]

Haven't posted in a while, and don't really have time to now, but...

I'm first going to offer a strictly grammatical account, then consider possible affects.

Look at the context. Warrior is giving away pairs of Dojo shoes: dojo, ninja. (Someone better versed than I in Japanese culture can comment as to whether or not ninjas actually train in a dojo, but I think for the sake of popular Western transmission of that culture, it's enough to say they're vaguely related.) People ask for the shoes using the phrase "Ninja Please" -- that is, asking politely for the product to be given to them free of charge, as one would say, "Beer, please."

However, what Jovan Miller claims that the "actual meaning behind" this hashtag, and what David Gross claims "it meant" (twice) is an apostrophe -- an address to a particular person, something along the lines of, "Nathaniel, please don't be foolish." This is not logically consistent with the explicit request: simple as that. They are, grammatically speaking, two utterly different phrases. To confound them would be as silly as if I said, "Beer, please" to indicate my desire for refreshment, and my buddy responded in rage, "Who the hell are you calling a beer?!" Maybe he thought I said 'bear', and he's really sensitive about his bodyhair, pronounced canine teeth, and long nails, but it's not my fault if he wasn't listening.

The emphasis in the request is on the thing requested; in the apostrophic slur, on the metonymy of "please". This emphasis is so obvious that when spoken aloud, they don't even *sound* the same. The difference is so great that the example I just gave is even more foolish than it initially seems.

What Miller and Gross are claiming is that any two-word expression which begins with "ni-" and terminates with an unstressed syllable, followed by "please," regardless of the actual meaning of the phrase or how it parses, is necessarily an allusion to a racial vulgarity. In which case, sexual fetishists, low-end panhandlers, and metallurgy specialists are in serious trouble: they are no longer allowed to politely and concisely ask for a nipple, a nickel, or some nickel, and I'd better be careful about exercising laconic brevity in telling my buxom friends Nigella and Nicola to stop their foolishness. (Incidentally, anyone who corresponds politely with the culinary author and TV personality Nigella Lawson had better be EXTREMELY careful to to ask her, please, for a copy of a recipe.)

Does any such expression run the risk of being confounded with that racial vulgarity? Sure. Is Warrior covered, linguistically speaking? Absolutely, the same way someone who correctly uses the word 'niggardly' is covered. If you don't mind controversy -- and Warrior has never minded that -- you're free and clear.

Now, if your concern is for political correctness above all, you exercise caution with the word "please" in such addresses, as you would with 'niggard', or invoking the name of women's fashion mogul Peter Nygard. You do not do so because you're afraid that you will accidentally "mean" a racial slur -- you do it so no-one might be *confused* into thinking you did.

Am I writing from a position of privilege? Absolutely. I'm not a member of a visible minority, and I don't care if someone calls me a 'drunken Scot'. I haven't had to live with the things Jovan Miller has had to live with. I'm not questioning his right to be offended, or even to raise issues of linguistic sensitivity. However, in this case, it might be argued that he has overstepped the actual meaning of Warrior's phrase in finding offence in it. Fair enough. That doesn't mean he can't raise the issue, only that there is a limit to how far, in this case, he or anyone else can take it. And anyone who actually called him by that slur in my hearing would be subject to the same beating I've given people who addressed my teammates in those terms.

[Chadd 916]

This "controversy" seems contrived and overblown, not buying into the claim in this case.

[wrangler 157]

Ah, the drunken Scot reminded me of the city councilman that went nuts when hearing "niggardly" in a meeting, made headlines, and later had the word explained to him, as it hadn't previously made it into his lexicon.

I saw the same connection between dojo and ninja; perhaps it's a bit of a takeoff on something else, but I'll need the problem explained to me, to understand where the possible offense lies. I have to agree that this looks like someone looking for an issue.

I, too, object to an environment where anyone can hear a phrase, declare categorically that it has one, and only one meaning, that said meaning is something quite different from the definitions of the words used, and the meaning is what that individual says it is.

[Joonas #6 3]

Give me a fucking break.

[Monty22 833]

I'm sure Warrior is very concerned about any extra attention this "controvery" may generate. And by very concerned, I mean pleased. Lame effort to be edgey, they knew going in it may raise an eyebrow and likley thought "hey, all the better"....

[Chadd 916]

I saw the same connection between dojo and ninja; perhaps it's a bit of a takeoff on something else, but I'll need the problem explained to me, to understand where the possible offense lies. I have to agree that this looks like someone looking for an issue.

I, too, object to an environment where anyone can hear a phrase, declare categorically that it has one, and only one meaning, that said meaning is something quite different from the definitions of the words used, and the meaning is what that individual says it is.

[wrangler 157]

I have heard that phrase before.

I don't see that this addresses my points on "ninja".

[Hooah4 12]

Let me just take this moment to point out the first "jeffersons" reference in MSH history.

Spend enough time looking for spmething and you can find a reason to be offended. Much ado about nothing imo.

[JR Boucicaut 3801]

I saw the same connection between dojo and ninja; perhaps it's a bit of a takeoff on something else, but I'll need the problem explained to me, to understand where the possible offense lies. I have to agree that this looks like someone looking for an issue.

Ninja, please is a PC way to say it. I've heard it said before, my friend used to say it all the time. I thought it was funny.

[wrangler 157]

Ninja, please is a PC way to say it. I've heard it said before, my friend used to say it all the time. I thought it was funny.

So you've actually heard this used as a substitute for the other phrase? If so, that's the connection I lacked, as that's outside my experience.

[JR Boucicaut 3801]

I have, but this is interesting.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ninja-please

[mack 44]

I remember back in college some friends and I would get together and watch bad/old movies. One night revolved around martial arts movies, so after Gymkata we watched American Ninja. Seeing how ridiculous it was and especially seeing Steve James as a ninja, a black friend of mine made jokes about how no black guy would be a ninja, especially after that video of the guy knocking himself out. I said the afforementioned "ninja please" and we all started laughing at it. Then on my birthday he'd taken a picture of Steve James with a sword from the movie and put it on a shirt and gave it to me. It's still a running joke with us to this day.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Hugely overblown.

[Thinkingjack 51]

So you've actually heard this used as a substitute for the other phrase? If so, that's the connection I lacked, as that's outside my experience.

I can vouche for hearing it all the time, it always offended all my friends too, but thats because they were ghetto dudes lookin to fight.