Nike KneelToo
Nike decided to get involved in Colin Kaepernick's #KneelToo movement, with posters supporting him and "Just Do it" advertising (talking about his sacrifice for a good cause).
It doesn't help that it wasn't a good cause (BLM is based on the ignorance of it's followers), and that this wasn't a good method of protest. It missed that few cared if Kaep protested on his own time, or off screen, the problem with was by forcing fans to pay to watch an idiot insult them over things he didn't understand. It was a silly meme, as Kaep didn't sacrifice anything, and the cause was flawed at it's premise.
That got them some PR attention ($24M in buzz)... then it got them a lot more in mocking animus/backlash (nearly $4B in stock valuation). So the investors didn't like it in the short term.
Iran's Ahmadinejad supports Kaep (and anything anti-American), by hinting at what a racist country America is, because one of our top quarterbacks not having a contract. (He seems to agree with Democrats, BLM, and Nike). Of course, everything about that is wrong -- Kaepernick had the worst record for 2 years before he became a pain-in-the-ass and was dropped. In Iran he would have been tortured or killed for questioning the regime. And if he was really good, he probably would have been fine.
To the Social Justice Warriors, too much is never enough. And on queue, and few SJW's came out complaining that Nike has no credibility to hijack Kaep's message. [1]
So the question isn't whether this hurts brand perception in general (some evidence it has), but whether it hurts or helps them with the their customer base? Since their customers are less educated, more racist and more anti-American than the average (they're hot in inner cities and abroad, among low achieving minorities), it might work out in their favor, even if their brand is coupled to ignorant opportunism for everyone else. I mean does anyone really believe they care about social justice, or that they're just using it to sell shoes?
