Give Nike Credit For Paying Colin Kaepernick, But That’s It

We can applaud Nike for supporting Colin Kaepernick, but stop short of heaping praise, because their controversial ad was nothing more than good business.

Call me a cynic, but I believe that corporations exist for the sole purpose of making money. As much as we hope that the corporations we give our hard-earned money to are not evil, I simply do not believe that (successful) corporations would sacrifice their bottom line to stand behind a social cause.

Call me a pessimist, but I believe that there are three types of corporations: the unsuccessful, the bad, and the less-bad. As much as we hope that the corporations we give our hard-earned money to don’t support ideologies that we object to, I believe that anytime a corporation makes a statement on any social issue, it is at least 50% the result of bottom-line calculations.

Which brings us to The Swoosh, also known as: Nike. A brief recap of the past week’s events: On Monday, September 3rd, 2018, Colin Kaepernick tweeted out an image of a Nike ad with a close-up of his face, with “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” across his face, and The Swoosh and “Just do it” at the bottom.