putting on specials by manufacturer

I fooled around in the admin section quite a bit and i was unable to find any way of putting a special on that was valid for all of a manufacturer products or even a category.

say i have a special on all nike shoes as a category or all nike products in general

is there a way to do this?

thanks

While this idea might be a good one, the only problem is that categories aren't manufactured. Only products can be affected at this time.