THINK BEFORE YOU ‘ JUST DO IT’

Nike made the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick one of the faces of its 30th anniversary “Just Do It” ad campaign. The most talked about ad — featuring the American gridiron football player who started the movement of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to raise awareness about police brutality on African- Americans and other such racial injustices — has split USA further down the middle. President Donald trump, a vocal critic of athletes who knelt, had said that those who took the knee should be fired, also adding that players who don’t stand “shouldn’t be in the country”.

The ad may have polarised USA even more and not only across the Republican- Democrat divide but also made it an open war between white and black. In a plunging stock price backlash, the company lost $ 3 billion market cap but may have made friends of people who saw it as a fitting comment on the state of USA and the battle of the races. Of course, with less than 50 per cent of its global sales coming from the US, Nike may benefit worldwide with its message about equality and opportunity while putting the spotlight on US discrimination. “Is this the land history promised?” Nike asked in multi- page print ads while stressing on equality.

The image of sport and how it offers a level playing field for all received a boost even if the Republicans and others started burning all their sporting apparel and shoes with the famous Swoosh.