Physical activity and the politics of corporate health promotion

This chapter examines some aspects of the Nike Corporation’s involvement with the global and United Kingdom (UK) discourses of physical activity. It explores Nike’s involvement in building a theory about physical activity. The chapter considers Nike’s alliance with a variety of state, civil society and professional organisations in the process of constructing their ‘Designed to Move’ lobby document. It explains Nike’s attempted construction of a global physical activity ‘movement’ in association with the UK Physical Activity Commission. The lobby document would advocate for a multisectoral approach to physical activity promotion, aiming at ‘changemakers’ to make people around the world more physically active. Throughout the lobbying process, some solutions gather strength and legitimacy, while others weaken and disappear from the discourse. An advocate working in various health promotion agencies in Europe was troubled by the absence of older adults from serious consideration.