“Just Do It” Cam­paign: Sup­port or Boy­cott 

Sept. 3, Nike de­buted their new “Just Do It” cam­paign  star­ring the for­mer San Fran­cisco 49ers quar­ter­back, Colin Kaeper­nick. Last year, Kaeper­nick was in the head­lines for protest­ing dur­ing the NFL na­tional an­them to fight against racial in­equal­ity and po­lice bru­tal­ity.  

 

Two weeks af­ter a con­tro­ver­sial cam­paign, there was a sig­nif­i­cant in­crease (31%) in on­line sales over the La­bor Day hol­i­day. How­ever, dur­ing the ini­tial re­lease of the cam­paign, there was a trend of so­cial me­dia users that claimed to have burned their Nike ap­parel and shoes be­cause of Nike’s sup­port for Kaeper­nick. 

 

For this ar­ti­cle, Paw­print would like to re­main neu­tral but wanted to give stu­dents an op­por­tu­nity to ex­press their feel­ings con­cern­ing the cam­paign. This topic may be sen­si­tive to some and want to warn our read­ers that there may be trig­gers in these ar­gu­ments. 

 

Paw­print con­ducted a poll via Twit­ter for two days (Sept. 14 – Sept. 16, 2018) that asked the ques­tion, “Do you sup­port Nike’s de­ci­sion to have Colin Kaeper­nick as their spokesper­son?” Vot­ers could ei­ther se­lect Yes – I sup­port Nike or No – I don’t sup­port Nike.  

 

The re­sults were 87% Yes – I sup­port Nike and 13% No – I don’t sup­port Nike.  

 

 

How do you feel about Nike’s de­ci­sion to have Colin Kaeper­nick as their spokesper­son? 

I’m 110% here for it. Since Kaeper­nick took that first knee in 2016, he has been the sub­ject of crit­i­cism, and bla­tant racism. Peo­ple have made a mock­ery out of him, you know. The NFL black­balled him. To see Nike take this story and com­pletely spin it to sup­port Kaeper­nick is be­yond words. – Nya Dorsey, Ju­nior Com­mu­ni­ca­tions ma­jor 

 

I feel like it was a great way for Nike to do some­thing for Kaeper­nick, who gave his whole ca­reer to try to bring about equal­ity for African Amer­i­cans. I be­lieve the pur­pose of kneel­ing was to bring at­ten­tion to prison re­form. In choos­ing Kaeper­nick, it helped em­power him which prob­a­bly trick­led down to em­power every­one else. It also helped Nike show which side it’s on. The play­ers over the league, and thanks to Trump’s lu­di­crous tweets, the peo­ple over the gov­ern­ment. Con­versely, it can be seen as yet an­other big com­pany try­ing to make money off the ac­tions of a heroic per­son. No­tice, the ad did­n’t val­i­date the cause, it was just about stand­ing up for what you be­lieve in. And the only real way of mak­ing the change, out­side of bloody rev­o­lu­tions, is by get­ting every­one to back the cause. – Tommy Henry, Se­nior Stu­dio Art: Paint­ing ma­jor 

 

It’s a par­tic­u­lar po­si­tion Nike put them­selves in be­cause I ques­tion their in­ten­tions. I sup­port the cause and ap­plaud them for tak­ing a stand but, does that stand end af­ter the prof­its from the cause? Or is the profit in­vested to push the cause fur­ther? Ul­ti­mately, fi­nan­cially it was a good move, and they sup­ported a wor­thy cause, but I want to see them do more. – Christina Isa­iah, Se­nior In­ter­ac­tive De­sign ma­jor 

 

Should com­pa­nies in­cor­po­rate so­cial jus­tice causes to their mar­ket­ing cam­paigns? 

“Yes; I be­lieve com­pa­nies should in­te­grate as­pects of so­cial jus­tices causes into cam­paigns. When look­ing to drive sub­stan­tial rev­enue and en­hance brand aware­ness, you must demon­strate your com­mit­ment to the in­ter­ests of those (ex­ter­nal cus­tomers-buy­ers and in­ter­nal cus­tomers-em­ploy­ees) that sus­tain the busi­ness. This can lead to cre­at­ing a com­pet­i­tive ad­van­tage, which fur­ther so­lid­i­fies your po­si­tion in the mar­ket: as one of a kind. I agree with the stance Nike took. If I had to change any­thing, it would be to in­cor­po­rate what brought Kaeper­nick to the lime­light: him kneel­ing dur­ing the an­them.” – Ra­pulu Okolo, Se­nior Sports Busi­ness Man­age­ment ma­jor 

 

“I be­lieve com­pa­nies should not in­cor­po­rate so­cial jus­tice causes to their mar­ket­ing cam­paigns. In the­ory, a com­pany would pro­mote so­cial jus­tice to their tar­get de­mo­graphic which would in­spire change in so­ci­ety. This is great in the­ory, but in prac­tice, the idea never works in an in­tended way. The mar­ket­ing cam­paign will di­vide the con­sumers into those that sup­port the so­cial jus­tice and those that are against it. Also while the idea to pro­mote so­cial jus­tice is great, com­pa­nies will take ac­tions that they be­lieve will ben­e­fit them by mak­ing more profit. Com­pa­nies should not use so­cial jus­tice causes to make a profit.” – Luis Castillo, Ju­nior Math­e­mat­ics ma­jor 

 

Is it an ath­lete’s re­spon­si­bil­ity to take stances on so­cial jus­tice is­sues? 

I don’t nec­es­sar­ily be­lieve that it is an ath­lete’s sole re­spon­si­bil­ity to be the face of so­cial jus­tice is­sues. I feel as though ath­letes who have such a huge plat­form and have huge fol­low­ings should be well-in­formed and caught up on the is­sues that they dis­cuss. How­ever, I do think that these ath­letes should use their sta­tus and in­flu­ence to call out is­sues that need to be ad­dressed. Since sports are so pop­u­lar, I think that it is a great out­let to bring cer­tain top­ics to light. – Court­ney Pope, Ju­nior Nurs­ing ma­jor 

 

I be­lieve that every­one has the re­spon­si­bil­ity to take stances on so­cial jus­tice is­sues. As an ath­lete, you have a big­ger plat­form that can cre­ate more at­ten­tion tp the is­sues at hand. We all live in this world and should care enough about the mis­treat­ment of oth­ers. – Greg Moore, Se­nior Ac­count­ing ma­jor 

 

Fi­nal Ver­dict 

Stu­dents, fac­ulty, and staff of Maryville Uni­ver­sity:  

 

As cases and head­lines of so­cial jus­tice be­gin to show up in var­i­ous ar­eas of pop­u­lar cul­ture, sports, and so­cial me­dia, it’s im­per­a­tive that in­di­vid­u­als can come to­gether and re­spect­fully com­mu­ni­cate thoughts and opin­ions that re­flect our ex­pe­ri­ences. 

 

It’s okay to talk with peers about dif­fi­cult con­ver­sa­tions and have thought-pro­vok­ing con­ver­sa­tions. It’s not okay to ig­nore the con­ver­sa­tions.