NIKE TAKING POLITICS TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL
Kaepernick ads getting everyone talking – just like brand wants
A pile of Nike sneakers sits on the floor inside the door of my home. There’s mine, my husband’s and the pint-sized ones worn by my 5-year-old son.
Which gets me thinking. If my kindergartner wears Nike cleats to his first soccer game of the season this weekend, are we going to get dirty looks from Trump supporters? Or goaded into a political debate?
What if I wear my Nikes to the gym? I just want to work out. I don’t want to argue about politics there.
I understand why Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem at NFL games. He was protesting police brutality against the black community. He was protesting racial inequality and social injustice.
But now Nike, by making Kaepernick the face of its latest “Just Do It” campaign, has taken it to a whole new level, injecting politics onto youth soccer fields and wherever people young and old are sporting Nike attire. Which is pretty much everywhere.
Who doesn’t own a pair of Nike sneakers or a Nike sweatshirt or a pair of Nike socks?
Much like the legendary sports brand, politics is everywhere in this unprecedented era of divisiveness. Ugly political rants and barbs are a constant on social media. Politics dominate TV newscasts and fill the pages of newspapers. Families will soon be bracing for the holidays, and if yours is like mine, you may have a no-politics rule at Thanksgiving.
The ad has ignited a firestorm of controversy — literally. People are burning their Nike sneakers in protest, including an Oklahoma man who accidentally burned his house down when he lit his Nike sneakers on fire in his garage.
Of course, as Nike brass likely predicted, its ad campaign has everyone talking about the brand as football season kicks off this weekend.
Emerson College professor David Gerzof Richard called it “brilliant” marketing by Nike. When I called him up yesterday, he was talking about Nike and Kaepernick with students in his PR class.
“White nationalists, old white guys, is a very small subset of who their customer base is,” said Gerzof Richard, CEO of BIGfish PR. “A much, much larger group of people are the people who are on the side of Kaepernick and Nike. They truly know who their customers are.”
“I don’t think that Nike cares. In fact, I’m sure that they’re happy that white nationalists are avoiding and burning their products,” he added.
Let’s just hope the white nationalists don’t start harassing little kids, moms and dads wearing Nike gear.