‘Drenched in blood-red paint and his mouth in a contorted war cry, this powerful image of Wayne Rooney is meant to inspire. It has, however, managed to offend everyone from MPs to religious leaders.’ So writes Nick Craven in today’s Daily Mail, in an attempt to persuade readers that they too should be outraged by our ad for Nike. In his article he has indeed managed to find an MP and an evangelical Christian to complain about the ad. That’s everyone to the total of two.

Now, I don’t normally read the Mail cover to cover, but today they refer to our ad not once but twice. Here it is again:

Stephen Glover, in an article apparently calculated further to inflame the righteous indignation of the stereotypical Mail reader says, ‘Consider this repulsive poster carefully. Rooney’s face and upper body are smeared with what looks like blood in the shape of the cross of St George. His mouth, with two disjointed fangs, is wide open in a yell of hatred and wild aggression. This is a depiction of primitive, violent man – a bloodthirsty barbarian lifted from the dark ages.’

Blimey. That seems a trifle harsh on Rooney and his teeth. And it goes on to slag off his fiancee.

Anyway, big thanks to the Mail for running the ad again today for free.

Back in March our head office in Portland started working on a pro bono project at the request of Nike. For months it was simply called "that refugee thing," and largely flew under the radar. It started to take shape about 6 weeks ago when we finally landed on a name: ninemillion.org.

Teams went to Azerbaijan, Thailand and Uganda to interview, photograph and videotape real refugee children. We entered into global partnerships to make the campaign come to life. They made a print ad. They made a TV spot. They made some short films. And they built a web site to help tell a story from the eyes of the nine million refugee children around the world, ultimately to generate donations to the United Nations world refugee fund.

The campaign launched yesterday around the world. Our Nike clients are in Washington D.C. for the kickoff, and we’ve just heard that it was very well received from heads of state, celebrities and politicians in attendance.

Today is the beginning of a 12 month fundraising drive, and the end of a crazy couple of months of very hard work and dedication from an amazing team of people.

If you have a moment, check out the web site at:

http://www.ninemillion.org