Nike’s New Campaign: Social Justice Campaign or Smart Marketing?

The Nike swoosh is the most iconic logo of all time. Nike is a brand recognized and revered across the globe in a way that can only compare to McDonald’s arches, Coca-Cola’s script and Apple’s, well, apple. Now, Nike has catapulted into the national and global conversation on a remarkable scale – and not for its newest shoe launch. Yet, Nike’s new playbook is not exactly novel. Over the past two years, we’ve seen brands take oftentimes divisive stances on issues like refugees and immigration, racial equality, gun control - even going so far as to sue the President. Still, Nike may be arguably the largest and most omnipresent brand high jumping into the current social justice and political discourse.

Unless you haven’t signed onto social media, looked at any major news site or stood by a water cooler in the past three days, chances are, you’ve heard of Nike’s new 30th anniversary campaign for “Just Do It.” As well as the face of the campaign, Colin Kaepernick, and the controversy surrounding that decision. There are heaps of articles analyzing the campaign, its implications and fallout. We’ll keep it simple by overviewing why it works and what we’re waiting to see. 

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