We want Kaepernick but not on his knee!

Nike’s recent advertisement campaign featuring one-time NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, better known perhaps for kneeling during the national anthem as a mark of protest rather than his defence splitting throws, and the rather bombastic PR campaign that was staged before the advert was officially broadcast has gained a fair bit of attention. Though, there have been stray incidents of zealous Trump supporters, substituting Nike shoes and apparel for wood in their backyard bonfires, the campaign has found emphatic support, across a large majority of people.

(source - Wayland Student Press)

While the campaign’s success has certainly boosted Nike’s brand reputation and embellished it with a new ‘social and political consciousness’ for having the courage to make Kaepernick, persona-non-grata in the NFL, the face of its campaign, it is interesting to delve a little deeper into Nike’s use of celebrity athletes to further the brand’s communication and consequently its sales and to briefly explore whether the Brand dipping its toes into political waters was as big a ‘risk’ as a number of media outlets made it out to be.

At the outset, Nike does not really pick a side or espouse Kaepernick’s protest. They do not make the minutest of references to the ‘kneeling’, but as Howard Pulchin, the global creative-strategy director of consulting giant Apco Worldwide said in an interview to Ad Age, “Saying nothing is saying a lot too…”. Nike is definitely not saying anything that hasn’t been said before, but seem to have tapped into psyches of a substantial chunk of consumers by just hitching their wagon to Kaepernick.

Source - CNBC

First things first, Nike and the 30-year-old Kaepernick have a long relationship. The quarterback who has been a Nike-sponsored athlete since 2011, first protested in 2016 against racial inequality and police violence primarily against persons of colour, among others. The recent Nike campaign though, does not allude to any of these elements, preferring to play up Kaepernick’s ‘sacrifice’ of his football career for a higher goal.

Kaepernick is not an active football player, he gave up his contract at the end of the 2016. He had a middling career at best in the NFL and Nike has been loath to put the spotlight on off-field activities of most of its sponsored athletes, barring someone like a Michael Jordan. But as one of the first gleanings from Nike’s no-holds barred publicity campaign built around Kaepernick, it is evident that the Brand does see him holding enough currency in society to position him as the spearhead of their communications without actually saying anything of substance. 

Nike stock traded at an all-time high after the Kaepernick advert was aired

The video, which has now received more than 25 million hits on YouTube, follows the now-standard Nike template - fast cuts of sporting action set to a rousing soundtrack and oft-repeated clichés along the ‘never giving up’, ‘and working towards being the best,’ being some of them. Nowhere is any reference made to Kaepernick's protest nor are there any visuals of him kneeling. 

This intelligent positioning according to Stein (2018) allows Nike to effectively not make any adverse commentary which might endanger its reputation within some demographics but also allows it to carve a niche for itself in the minds of a large chunk of consumers, burnishing the brand image and giving it a sheen of ‘a brand that has a finger on society’s pulse’. It also displays an ingenious use of framing theory (Vliegenthart, 2012) whereby Nike uses the 'Kaepernick' frame but consciously avoids utilising the 'protest' one. But, by just focusing on the very tip of the proverbial iceberg, Nike’s communication strategy seems to have hit the bulls-eye of the trifecta of gaining attention, creating a splash, and boosting its reputation.

About the author - Chinmay is a masters student at the University of Amsterdam. Having served as a journalist with one of India's leading English dailies, he has also driven communications for two of India's leading conglomerates' sports divisions. He is passionate about sports, cinema, and communication.