Colin Kaepernick: What Nike, Wieden+Kennedy and we all missed out on
Much has been written about Nike’s latest ad featuring American quarterback Colin Kaepernick, but senior strategy consultant Daniel Bluzer-Fry believes there’s one element of the story we all missed out on.
Sports play an important role in our lives. At their best, they help build bridges between the stratum of our ever fracturing societies. Yet the marketisation of sports has fundamentally compromised what sports can and should be.
The Harvard Professor and Political Philosopher Michael Sandal writes about this in great detail in the closing chapter of his brilliant 2012 title ‘What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets’.
Amongst other things, he explored the ‘Skyboxification’ of sport, and how it’s driven a wedge in what was once a great social equalizer, the rise of merchandising, and how sponsorship has compromised the idea of community, place and identity that sport has always nurtured.
Kaepernick does not sit – he kneels. He kneels specifically because it’s a respectful gesture, which I’ve seen described as akin to “a flag at half-mast”.
Does seem like a missed opportunity.
His presence in the crazy ad seemed to be a bit out of line and diluted too.
What a backstory though. True champ if everything in that Washington Post article is true
Did you not see the TV execution that went out after this? I feel like you didn’t.
It’s all for nothing if Nike doesn’t fix their human rights abuse.
They are effectively saying Black lives matter more than Asians.
So it all falls down.