<P> Nike was criticized for its use of the Beatles song "Revolution" in a 1987 commercial against the wishes of Apple Records, the Beatles' recording company . Nike paid US $250,000 to Capitol Records Inc., which held the North American licensing rights to the recordings, for the right to use the Beatles' rendition for a year . </P> <P> Apple Records sued Nike Inc., Capitol Records Inc., EMI Records Inc. and Wieden + Kennedy for $15 million . Capitol - EMI countered by saying the lawsuit was "groundless" because Capitol had licensed the use of "Revolution" with the "active support and encouragement of Yoko Ono, a shareholder and director of Apple Records ." </P> <P> Nike discontinued airing ads featuring "Revolution" in March 1988 . Yoko Ono later gave permission to Nike to use John Lennon's "Instant Karma" in another advertisement . </P> <P> Nike was an early adopter of internet marketing, email management technologies, and using broadcast and narrowcast communication technologies to create multimedia marketing campaigns . </P>

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