Memphis millennials see genius in Kaepernick ad
When Nike made Colin Kaepernick one of the faces of its 30th annual “Just Do It” campaign, it wasn’t aiming to please 44-year-olds like John Rich.
It was aiming to please 27-year-olds like Kirstin Cheers.
Rich, of the country group Big & Rich, recently took to Twitter to blast Nike and urge a boycott of the brand for using the face of the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback in an ad emblazoned with the phrase, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”
The ad refers to Kaepernick’s decision during the 2016 football season to kneel as the national anthem was played to protest police slayings of African-Americans.
But as the NFL cowed to criticism, amplified by President Donald Trump, over Kaepernick and other AfricanAmerican football players’ anthem protests — this year it made a rule requiring players to stand for the anthem — Nike turned the controversy into a marketing tool.
It did that, say many analysts, because it is focused on the future, not the past. Nike’s growing demographic are millennials, who are adults ages 22 to 37. They’re more racially and culturally diverse, more socially conscious and more likely to support social justice issues than older generations.
And they have their best sneakerbuying years ahead of them.
Which is why boycotts by people like Rich won’t shut down Nike’s distribution center in Memphis — the largest in the world — anytime soon.
It also won’t happen as long as Memphis continues to be one of the top 25 cities in the nation where millennials are choosing to live.
Cheers, who works in communications for United Way of the Mid-South, is one such millennial.
“People in my generation, 22 to 34, all grew up with Nike, and Nike has always been about inclusion,” she said. ‘They have the shoe by LeBron James — the Nike LeBron 16 — that a Memphis woman, Brandi Daniel, helped design...
“But when I saw that ad with Colin Kaepernick, I got chills ... When I was growing my mom wouldn’t let me buy expensive shoes, but now I’m going to have to go out and buy some sneakers.”
Danielle Inez, special assistant to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, who also organized the group Millennials for Memphis, lauded the Kaepernick ad.
“It was a brilliant marketing strategy, but it was also a nod to being informed, and being courageous and being yourself,” Inez said. “What Nike did was encourage us to be courageous, because we had a generation that told us to be conservative in pushing for what we want. Now we have a major corporation that is putting this kind of activism on a pedestal. “We love it.” But Carl Schneider, 28, and a community organizer for Stand for Children in Memphis, said that by using Kaepernick’s sacrifice as an example, Nike is doing more than encouraging millennials to buy its sneakers.
It is showing them that following one’s conscience can carry more value than following money.
“It’s incredible and inspiring that he was willing to give up a super lucrative career to speak up for the rights of others,” Schneider said. “I think it’s a great message for millennials, because we can be seen as being self-serving and self-centered, and this is the opposite of that ... It also is enabling us to have conversations about race and social justice in an invigorating way.”
With the right sneakers to wear to the discussion.