It has been 17 days since Nike launched its ad featuring Colin Kaepernick, and the company must already be running out of bags to hold all its extra cash.
Nike stocks are up 36 percent and the value of the company shot up $6 billion. This is due in large to the fact Nike added a log to a fire that society has been stoking for a year.
When Kaepernick kept his knee planted on the turf, he inspired a social debate that has brought us to the point where people are willing to set fire to hundreds of dollars of Nike gear — just to prove a point.
That’s fine by Nike, though.
Along with the shoe burners, Nike has seen money flying in from their regular base of buyers. Young men between their teenage years to early 30s are buying Nikes like they’re going out of style.
This is all because Nike has taken the politically correct stance of giving a man a job, even in the face of bigoted backlash.
Hunter Diehl | Argonaut
In doing this, people have been bending over backward trying to show their support for Nike and its most recent politically correct stance. Latest comedian-turned-serious-artist Jim Carrey even flashed a pair of Nikes in Bill Maher’s face.
The problem with all of this is all these progressive ideas pushed by Nike aren’t being done to make society a better place — they’re being pushed to make Nike look good.
The thing a lot of people seem to forget is Nike doesn’t do things out of the goodness of its heart. It’s a business, and its goal is to make as much money as possible.
Nike achieves this goal through a number of methods. Promoting politically correct culture, throwing pennies at kids to make their shoes in far-off countries where the labor laws are too sad to even be called a joke, etc.
The perfect example of Nike’s hypocrisy can be found in the fact that the company recently made an eight-year deal with the organization that refuses to let Kaepernick play: the NFL. That’s like telling a friend you’ll stay away from their ex-boyfriend because there was some drama, and then posting a selfie with the ex and having the caption read, “New Bestie!”
The only reason Nike says it cares about being socially aware is because its buyers want it to be socially aware. There’s nothing wrong with that, though. As far as amoral behavior goes, playing on people’s desires to look socially good doesn’t quite have the sting of paying an Indonesian child a dollar a day.
The job as a company is to make money, and slapping a black-and-white photo of Kaepernick everywhere did just that. The problem is with how people are perceiving this business decision. The extremists of both sides have taken control of the narrative and have forced the people who don’t have a dog in the fight to throw their pug in with the pit bulls.
Now, it’s starting to feel like if you wear a pair of shoes with a swoosh on them, then that must automatically make you some liberal crusader when you just want to wear quality shoes.
Or if you choose not to wear them because they run a pretty penny, then everyone thinks you have a problem with people of color.
Just like with a lot of social issues today, this Kaepernick ad debate is starting to feel like a lose-lose situation.
Hunter Diehl can be reached at [email protected]