AKQA puts its foot in Nike’s Park Football

In its attempt to reach grass-roots footie fans with the high profile “Park Football” initiative, Nike appears to have scored an own-goal.

The top prize for Park Footballer of the Year failed to find its way into the hands of the next David Beckham or a budding Tony Adams. Instead someone nearer to home, or more correctly, nearer to Nike, was picked.

On the night of the awards ceremony Nike discovered the winner was none other than Andy Fergusson, a creative director at AKQA, its own new media agency which happened to have built the Park Football Website.

Undeterred Nike went ahead and awarded Fergusson the prize. A Nike spokesman says: “We don’t think this is at all embarrassing. Andrew did not work on the Nike account and he won the award on his own merits.”