Negative Consequences Predicted for Just Doing It; Nike Suffers Backlash

Nike is suffering a backlash for its controversial decision to sign former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick to a new ad campaign deal.

The sports apparel giant is featuring the controversial former NFL quarterback – the player responsible for the movement in the league to take a knee during the national anthem – in its 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign. In response, there have been calls for a boycott of Nike and the company’s stock took a hit.

Justin Danhof, director of the National Center for Public Policy Research‘s Free Enterprise Project, says Nike appears to have made a bad business decision by promoting Kaepernick. The corporation, he argues, “is appealing to a small, racialized market that supports Black Lives Matter and apparently hates the police.”

Blair

Paul Blair played in the NFL for five seasons. Now the pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, he says he’s disappointed with Nike’s action because the agenda led by Kaepernick is based on a false premise.

“They’ve painted this picture that we’ve literally got out-of-control bands of police officers roaming the streets, looking for innocent, black men to shoot and kill – and that’s not true,” Blair tells OneNewsNow.

Danhof says Nike has failed to learn from the mistakes of other organizations.

“ESPN is shedding viewers like crazy over the company’s liberal policy positions and support for people like Kaepernick,” he notes. “… The NFL’s ratings were way down last season and so many Americans are growing sick and tired of watching wealthy athletes disrespect the American flag by kneeling or hiding in their locker room.”

Danhof called the deal with the former NFL quarterback “a slap in the face to the company’s investors.” He suggests that “when Nike coined the phrase ‘Just Do It,’ I don’t think that they meant to tank the stock by sowing racial discord in America. This corporate virtue-signaling is going to blow up in their faces.”

Blair predicts the same result. “There’s certainly a lot of outstanding, wonderful athletes who are out there who are great citizens, great people – fine Christians, even – that Nike could rally around,” says the pastor. “But instead they are choosing to tie the future of their company with a guy who wore socks that [depicted] police officers as pigs.

“… I don’t think that that is going to be a popular notion with most of the buying public.”

According to reports, a Nike commercial featuring Kaepernick is scheduled to debut during the NFL’s regular-season opener between the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night.

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