Just Buy It: A Critical Analysis of Nike’s ‘Dream Crazy’ Advertisement Campaign

On September 3rd, 2018, former National Football League (NFL) quarterback Colin Kaepernick ‘broke Twitter’ (as Generation Z would say) by posting a monochromatic photograph of himself embossed with Nike Inc.’s iconic swoosh logo (see Figure 1). Echoing the sentiments of Kaepernick’s controversial social justice protests, this tweet was captioned:

“Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. #JustDoIt”

Kaepernick’s tweet, in essence, served as Nike’s unofficial announcement of their 30th-anniversary advertisement campaign for their ‘Just Do It’ slogan.

Rather than celebrating the longevity of Nike’s timeless moniker, however, the social media world met Kaepernick’s tweet with polarization. Various Twitter users, for instance, posted videos of themselves burning Nike apparel because they perceived Nike’s endorsement of Kaepernick as…