“But will it sell more shoes?”

Is Nike’s Kaepernick ad a tool of white supremacist capitalism or an opportunity to change the system?

You could almost hear the sputtering of half-swallowed coffee at millions of computer screens.

Nike, the world’s largest sportswear brand, sponsor of countless professional athletic events, and the difference between a million-dollar athlete and a billion-dollar athlete, unveiled their 30th anniversary ad campaign:

A black and white close-up portrait of Colin Kaepernick, the American football player who made the quiet choice to kneel during the National Anthem in protest of racially-motivated police brutality.

His protest has sparked a national debate over peaceful protest and patriotism.

He has been on the receiving end of a presidential demand to “get that sonofabitch off the field.”

It appears the owners of NFL teams took their Commander in Chief’s orders to heart: as a free agent, Kaepernick spent the 2017 season unsigned: a pariah to his profession not because of his lack of ability but because of his abundance of audacity.

Kaepernick’s story has already been told in countless news reports and Twitter threads and rap lyrics.

And that’s the point: Nike is counting on you to see the story radiating from Colin Kaepernick’s eyes as he beseeches you to “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

The thing about creating an ad that invites people to fill in the blanks is that they will invariably relate it to their own stories.

Those of us who support Kaepernick’s cause and stand with him in his resolution to not bow down to political pressure see the ad as an image of a hero. We see someone who has taken the heat on behalf of the millions who want to fight injustice but literally can’t afford to sacrifice their careers in the name of civil liberties. We see in Kaepernick the leader we strive to be.

Those who are either ignorant of the meaning behind taking a knee during the National Anthem––or who see the National Anthem as sacrosanct regardless of the reason for the protest––or who believe white supremacy is the natural order of things––or a combination of all––see the ad as a slap to the face.

They see an American business institution turning its back on everything they hold dear.

They see their own growing irrelevance.

They see a threat.

Let’s take a science break.

When human beings sense a potential threat to their existence or wellbeing, neuroscience tells us, we get a zap to the amygdala, or brain stem.

The brain delivers a cocktail of cortisol, adrenaline and oxytocin to our systems.

We get goosebumps. Our hearts pound. Our blood rushes to our faces and we feel pressure behind our eyes. We feel restless. We must do something.

It is our biological imperative to fight or flee.

In this stressful moment we are both imprinting a story and recalling stories we’ve imprinted in the past.

In the U.S, the system of white supremacy has imprinted in all of us the story of the dangerous Black man.

It blasts us with mugshots of Black men and gang members while minimizing or criminalizing the work of Black civil servants and activists.

It elevates the status of studio-manufactured “thug” rappers while ignoring the artistry of black poets.

It perpetuates tropes in which white people act as civilizing forces and saviors to Black people who are too “savage” to save themselves. Arnold and Willis had Mr. Drummond. Kanye and Alice Marie Johnson have Kim.

It treats a world in which whites are in the minority or on level playing ground with people of color as a post-apocalyptic battleground. In such a world, decent white families are outnumbered by rapists, drug dealers and welfare queens.

In the case of the Nike ad, the mere image of Kaepernick can either wrap people in hope or constrict people with fear.

The people who feel afraid want to slay this looming giant, this symbol of the growing tide of power rising from the others––the ones who have everything to gain and centuries of white supremacy to lose.

These are powerful myths that insidiously infect our collective subconscious, and no one is immune. Black people internalize these stories just as much as white people.

The only difference is that while Black people experience the consequences of these fictions in their daily lives, white people benefit from them.

It’s common sense, backed by history and countless social experiments: people who live under oppression are more likely to seek freedom from it. Those who are rewarded by the system of oppression are more likely to be obedient and help to enforce it.

It takes enormous acts of empathy, introspection, education and awareness to break the spell such stories cast upon us.

Back to the Nike ad.

As members of the right look upon Colin Kaepernick’s face plastered on the side of buildings and on billboards and in the pages of their Sports Illustrated magazines, their amygdalas deliver illustrations from the white supremacist storybook.

They don’t see a portrait, they see a mugshot.

They see a giant looming

So they do what frightened people whose societal privilege is threatened: they fight back.

They burn sneakers.

They suddenly and conveniently share memes about the notoriously poor working conditions of Nike factory workers in third-world countries.

They fall into patterns of whataboutism to deflect attention from the real issue, the one at the heart of the whole reason Colin Kaepernick ended up in a Nike ad in the first place:

In the U.S., Black lives are still bought, sold, and discarded like the very athletic shoes Nike is peddling.

Unless we all do the enormous work of un-telling the stories of white supremacy and undoing the consequences of it, we all work for the system.

Enough science and social justice. Let’s talk marketing.

The conversation in the world of marketing centers less on whether this is a good ad and more on whether it’s an effective ad.

Will it sell more shoes?

“I don’t see a call to action. What are they selling?” Asked several direct-response copywriters in a Facebook group.

“The jury’s still out, but Nike is probably going to lose millions in business from NFL fans,” another marketer commented.

These observations are typically made by marketers who believe the only purpose of advertising is to create a transactional relationship: if it doesn’t directly and immediately result in more sales, it’s a failure.

But the purpose of this ad isn’t to sell more shoes. And to a multi-billion dollar corporation the loss of a few million dollars in sales is a drop in the bucket compared to the lifelong business of a generation of socially aware young adults who are about to become financially independent.

This ad wasn’t made to sell more shoes to NFL fans. It was made to introduce Nike to Generation Z.

The generation that brought us Emma Gonzales and Malala Yousafzai. The generation that believes, according to a recent Berkey study, that “equality is non-negotiable” when it comes to choosing the brands they buy from.

As a brand that relies on aspirational messaging, Nike could easily rest on the laurels of controversy this ad has created and profit from the carefully created polarization.

But that’s not enough for Gen Z.

Our young adults demand that companies walk the walk of their social justice talk, not only by endorsing causes but also by changing their business practices.

So if Nike doesn’t want to lose its momentum, here’s what it needs to do:

Stop sweeping the human rights violations their company is responsible for under the carpet.

If overcoming adversity truly is a driving principle of Nike as a company as they profess in their ads, they need to be totally transparent in the adversity they’re helping to create through the poor working standards of child laborers.

Turn past history of exploitative employment practices into an opportunity to tell a story of redemption.

When you’re transparent to your customers about your struggle, they’re more likely to want to help you reach your goals. Suddenly the relationship changes from transactional to meaningful: they are helping you help others.

Track progress toward sustainable goals.

Make the journey as much a part of the story as the endpoint. It’s okay to say “We’re trying to do better but we’re not there yet. Here’s where we need work.”

Use stumbling blocks as opportunities to highlight the challenges companies face in undoing the damage of the past.

Every story is a microcosm of a larger story. When you bring your story forward, it opens up the door for others to come forward with challenges they’re confronting.

Collaborate with other equality-focused companies to rework an economic system that rewards exploitation.

By authentically sharing your story in all its messiness, you’re not just selling products––you’re helping to lead a movement for change.

Going forward, it won’t be enough to sell more shoes or more computers or more smartphones or more beer. Generation Z is highly aware that responsibility for cleaning up the planet and undoing white supremacy rests on their shoulders, and they fully expect the companies that did the damage to help them.

When it’s time for you to design a marketing strategy, don’t just advertise your convictions––live them.

Just do it.