"Dream Crazy"

6 September 2018

2 mins 06s

Believe in Crazy

While many brands have offered up protests of the current political climate (read: utter batshittery) to various degrees, none have put their money where their mouths are quite like Nike. Pepsi's 'protest', it ain't.

The brand have appointed Colin Kaepernick - the former NFL player at the heart of the controversy about kneeling during the US national anthem - as their latest spokesperson. It's a move which has led to widespread protests on social media (e.g. racists burning their Nike goods... despite having already paid for them) - but as the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Indeed, Nike have received major kudos from most corners - aside from the ever-vocal minority of morons. Kaepernick and co. would be inspirational in this film regardless of context, but it's the sheer balls with which Nike thumb their noses at detractors which makes this campaign something special.

From celebrating football players born as refugees to honouring Serena Williams as the greatest athlete in history, the defiant message of this campaign can be summed up as 'if they say you can't, make them watch you do it twice'. It's 'Just Do It' for the Millennial age - on the 30th anniversary of the slogan - and it's extremely effective.

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