Mining activists demand WVU, Nike pull uniform ad

MORGANTOWN, W.VA. (AP) - Activists trying to stop mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia are furious over a Nike Inc. promotional ad for a new West Virginia football uniform designed in tribute to the 29 victims of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion.

The problem is not the color of the gear _ off-white that appears coated in coal dust _ or the number 29 on the coal-black helmets. It’s the depiction of a mountaintop removal mine behind the image of a player, complete with flat, treeless mountaintop, the sound of an explosion and the image of falling rock.

The ad appears to be a tacit endorsement of the controversial form of strip mining, activists argued Thursday, and it should be yanked immediately.

WVU football is a uniting force for a small state that lacks a professional team, and Danny Chiotos of Charleston, youth organizer for the Student Environmental Action Coalition, said for the Mountaineers to seemingly take a side with this ad is upsetting people.

“I’m largely amused by it and kind of bewildered by it,” Chiotos said. “They should come up with a better ad that actually promotes WVU football and the memory of the miners and mine safety.”

By depicting a surface mine that also resembles the open pit mines of western states like Wyoming, the ad also misses a key point about Upper Big Branch: The Massey Energy Co. mine that exploded April 5 was an underground operation.

The West Virginia athletic department issued a brief statement Thursday, saying the intent was to honor coal miners and their heritage. The graphics were designed by Nike and reviewed by WVU officials.

“The intent was for the player on the field to be surrounded by coal and not as an endorsement of any one form of mining technology,” the statement said. “We are in discussions with Nike about the graphic.”

Oregon-based Nike did not immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages.

The ad plunges both the school and the world’s largest athletic shoe and clothing maker into one of West Virginia’s most emotionally charged and political divisive issues.

Mountaintop removal was the sole issue of a candidate who ran in last week’s special primary to fill the seat of late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, and both industry and environmentalists are lobbying the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the practice.

The coal-themed Pro Combat gear will be worn for one game only this season, the Nov. 26 Backyard Brawl at Pittsburgh.

Naoma activist Bo Webb demanded the immediate removal of the ad and apologies to the people in the southern coalfields who have been hurt by mountaintop mining.

“I am so angry. I love football, and I will not watch WVU again,” said Webb, who was in Washington, D.C., with other activists on Monday, urging President Barack Obama’s administration to outlaw mountaintop removal. It was a prelude to a much larger “Appalachia Rising” rally planned for Sept. 27.

“I hope the players understand that they’re being used and rise up. I’d like them to say, ‘I’m not being pimped out by Nike and the state of West Virginia and the coal industry,” he said, “and I would like to see WVU admit, ‘We made a huge mistake.’”

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