Nike’s New Ad Offers Free Marketing Lessons

Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign is turning 30, and to celebrate, the company has just launched a new ad featuring controversial quarterback Colin Kaepernick. In case you have locked in a cave, you know that in 2016, playing for the San Francisco 49ers, Kaep began taking a knee during the singing of the national anthem, to protest against police brutality and racial injustice.

While Nike has endorsed Kaepernick since 2011, they have not featured him in any ads since he left the NFL. Until now. Kaepernick revealed his new (polarizing) campaign Monday via Twitter featuring the famous Nike slogan below the words: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

Personal feelings aside, I always approach ads from a marketing perspective. Call it a hazard of the job – I’ve been in consumer branding since my first job out of undergrad 17 years ago. This ad is classic Marketing 101. You market to your current consumers and those you want to still reach, in the way those consumers want to be reached. You’re burning your Nike apparel and loudly boycotting the company? Nike has apparently decided that you were not the target audience. The point of carefully crafted ads are to attract the people the company knows will be willing to purchase their products, and not turn off those that already are. When you look at Nike’s previous campaigns, they have always chosen athletes they feel will “move the needle:” "We believe Colin is one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation, who has leveraged the power of sport to help move the world forward," Nike's vice president of brand for North America Gino Fisanotti told ESPN.

 Michael Jordan, LeBron, Charles Barkley, Serena Williams and now Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick hasn’t played a game in years, yet remains one of the most famous recent athletes to play the sport. I’m willing to bet that more people recognize Kaep than some of the punters currently playing weekly in the NFL.

Those of us that work daily in the industry know that marketing isn’t a one-and-done field. As such, this isn’t a standalone ad. This ad signifies a new multi-year deal between Nike and Colin Kaepernick, which will feature him in billboards, television commercials, and a new apparel line. Some proceeds will reportedly also go to his Know Your Rights foundation.

Next lesson up in your Marketing Syllabus: when you do something that gives people a visceral reaction on both sides, you not only have both those sides talking about your campaign, but EVERYONE in between is now aware of what you have done.

Whether it’s conscious or unconscious, with every purchase you make, you are voting with your dollars. With every logo you wear, you are making your thoughts and beliefs known. If you do not like the current administration, would you dare put on a shirt with MAGA or Trump’s face on it? People have every right under the Constitution for peaceful protest. Just as you have every right to boycott a company that has produced an ad campaign you don’t believe in, Kaepernick, and scores of additional athletes, have the right to take a knee if they feel that is the most effective way to enact change.

What I find most amusing is all the people burning their Nike gear. Again, Nike’s marketing has already won – you own gear that you have already paid Nike for. Secondly, you’re SUCH a huge fan that this ad has prompted such a strong reaction. Yet…you haven’t been SUCH a huge fan that you knew that Colin Kaepernick has never NOT been on the Nike endorsement payroll?

It’s no coincidence that Nike released this ad the week of the start of the 2019 NFL season. The NFL that is sponsored by Nike. The company has clearly staked their swoosh in the sand. It’s time to take a stand, NFL. Just do it.