In 2016, American football quarterback Colin Kaepernick made headlines with his peaceful protests during one of the games. The football player refused to stand up for the US national anthem, which is required from everyone attending or participating in the event. Instead, Kaepernick went on one knee, with which he attracted attention from viewers and the press. Later, the San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback explained his decision to break the rules by his commitment to social justice causes. Kaepernick said that he was not going to “show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color (Abad-Santos, 2018).” In 2019, Kaepernick became the face of Nike and starred in an advertisement that won an Emmy the same year. Some people were moved by the message while others criticized the athlete for commercializing his efforts. This paper provides an analysis of Nike’s commercial starring Kaepernick from the Marxist standpoint.
Even if Kaepernick himself does not identify as a Marxist, it is quite easy to trace back the roots of and the motivation behind his peaceful protest to the Marxist ideology. According to Marx, the world could be explained in terms of exploitation and oppression. Every society in every era was largely guided by the class struggle between the oppressor (the ruling class) and the oppressed (the working class or proletariat) (Gliniecki, 2018). It should be noted that the struggle does not have to be obvious or explicitly violent: Marx draws attention to the veiled civil war that is going on without being noticed (Gliniecki, 2018). If in earlier ages, oppressors had to resort to open altercations, conflicts, and brute force, today, the tools of oppression are more subtle and intricate.
Marxism teaches that the next step after imposing control over the means of production is asserting ideological dominance. The objective of ideological dominance is to serve the interests of the ruling class by presenting their ideas about favorable class dynamics as a norm and common sense. For instance, ideological dominance might mean propagating unequal, exploitative relationships as natural, acceptable, and even desired (Gliniecki, 2018). Marx writes that ideological control results in the so-called false consciousness (Gliniecki, 2018). The working class is coaxed, coddled, and deluded into accepting the current order of things. Therefore, the capitalists have more leeway to pursue their interests further and normalize their efforts to make a profit at someone else’s expense.
Sports, which is the field in which Kapernick has been building his career so far, cannot be analyzed separately from the rest of society because, for sociologists, not a single part of society exists in isolation. Therefore, the same social forces of oppression and exploitation exist in sports. One may argue that sports are a field that offers many people belonging to disadvantaged communities a vehicle of upward social mobility. At a glance, such a stance is not completely ungrounded. Lawrence (2019) reports that in the NFL (National Football League) 68% of athletes are African-American and only 28% of them are White. However, the people who benefit financially such as broadcasters from these athletes are predominantly White (Lawrence, 2019). Therefore, the overrepresentation of Black athletes in sports is not indicative of any progress in social justice. They are appreciated mainly because they bring money. At the same time, ordinary Black people continue suffering from social ills fueled by racism such as police brutality, poor access to the justice system, and others.
Marx recommends bringing change by raising consciousness about the ongoing social conflict. The oppressed and exploited class needs to be taught that they are victims to help them break free from their false consciousness. Marx was encouraging both peaceful and forceful ways to challenge the existing system. Looking at Kaepernick’s protest, it becomes clear that it is Marxist. The athlete sought to raise consciousness about racial injustice in the United States. His act of bravery inspired other NFL athletes to do the same. In the next few years, Kaepernick carried on with avid activism such as donating to organizations working in oppressed communities and founding organizations of his own to address existing problems. The question arises as to whether the 2018 Nike commercial was made in the same Marxist spirit as everything that Colin Kaepernick had been doing so far.
This critique does not address Nike’s commercial in its original form. By the time the video was posted on YouTube, it had been seen by thousands of viewers during breaks at sports events. The commercial opens with Kaepernick saying “if people say your dreams are crazy if they laugh at what you think you can do — good, stay that way, because what nonbelievers fail to understand is that calling a dream crazy is not an insult, it’s a compliment (Hoops Daily, 2018).” The rest of the two-minute video is filled with images of people belonging to disadvantaged communities such as racial and ethnic minorities. Many of the people demonstrated in the commercial are visibly disabled. The video quickly addresses sexism and women’s empowerment by showing women doing traditionally male sports. Kaepernick closes the video advising its viewers to cease asking whether their dreams are “crazy” and inquire whether they are “crazy enough (Hoops Daily, 2018).”
The text of Kaepernick’s commercial is a discrete entity as it has a beginning and an end. Nike is a huge multinational enterprise that has millions of customers. When making a new campaign, it must have been crucial for the corporation to create a video that would appeal to broader audiences without any need for further explanation. Indeed, Kaepernick’s narration and ideas presented in the commercial are in line with Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign that encourages people to push their boundaries, resist social pressure, and follow their dreams. The video’s message is clear even to the viewers that do not know who Kaepernick is and what he has done for the black rights movement in the United States. One detail that proves this point is the absence of any references to Kaepernick’s protest – he does not kneel, nor does he address racial injustice in any manner.
As someone on the frontline of the fight for equal rights, Kaepernick divides society into oppressed and oppressors. The characters in the commercial belong to the oppressed class: they have their dreams and aspirations, but they are strained by the system that takes away their opportunities. The ruling class is not explicitly shown in the video, but its existence is implied: it is composed of the people who discourage the victims of oppression from carrying on with their fight.
Based on the reaction that Nike’s commercial caused across the globe and especially in the United States, it becomes clear that many viewers did manage to tie Kaepernick’s message to the largest context of his views and activism. Abad-Santos (2018) describes the social media boycott that followed Kaepernick becoming Nike’s new face in 2017. Outraged customers were pledging to never buy Nike’s products again; some of them even destroyed the company’s apparel that they owned and posted the pictures to social media (Abad-Santos, 2018).
On the one hand, Kaepernick seems to have succeeded in communicating his views in his commercial and challenging the system, which scandalized the ruling class. On the other hand, Nike ddecisionto highlight Kaepernick was not done without a clear purpose. In actuality, the company has had the NFL athlete under contract since 2011 (Abad-Santos, 2018). The timing of the commercial was not a coincidence: Nike must have waited long enough for the discussion around Kaepernick’s act to galvanize and gain enough traction. Surely, using Kaepernick was risky, but whatever minor hit to the company’s stock and reputation his appearance has caused, it has been absorbed by the amount of attention the company has gotten. Besides, the spirit that drives one person to burn their pair of Nikes is the same spirit that will push another person to buy a new pair. Those who are outraged by racists’ pushback will be quick to support the “socially aware” and “conscious” company by making purchases or even just talking about it on social media. These facts make Kaepernick’s agenda questionable: it almost seems as if he commercialized his ideas by collaborating with Nike.
Nike’s commercial is made to reach out toth broad and narrow audiences. At first glance, it broadcasts generic ideas about motivation, self-confidence, perseverance, and personal growth. It would not be a reach to say that every viewer has big dreams that keep them inspired but at the same time, deep-seated anxieties that beat their aspirations down. Kaepernick’s commercial seeks to help viewers to get rid of self-doubt, whatever it might be, and “just do it.” Besides, the ad was shown at the beginning of the NFL season and also aired during other sporting events such as the U.S. Open, Major League Baseball games, and college football. The choice of media for showing the ad proves the intention to connect with large numbers of people.
Upon further analysis, it becomes apparent that the video focuses on people who are at a disadvantage in one way or another, be it race, gender, or ability. These narrow audiences might find the commercial especially resonant with their experiences. For instance, some of them might have faced misunderstanding regarding their out-of-the-box dreams and ideas that are still seen as unreasonable or inappropriate in today’s society. To this, Kaepernick replies that calling disadvantaged people’s dream crazy is not an insult – it is a compliment. In essence, the “non-believers” unknowingly acknowledge the ambition – if not fear it.
Nike’s commercial might be inventive and imaginative in its way, but its context is rather reactive. The discussion about inequality in American society has been going for quite some time. Approaching the issue from the Marxist perspective, inequality and discrimination have been an indispensable part of every society. According to Marx, people have always tried to climb the dominance hierarchy by exploiting others (Gliniecki, 2018). At the same time, it needs to be pointed out that while oppression remains a constant, it takes various, ever-evolving forms.
For example, Lopez (2016) writes that nowadays, people with racist or other discriminatory views use the so-called coded language. CurThe currentcial code still draws on the deep-seated stereotypes of groups not accepted or deemed threatening by society. However, the terms are not naked in the sense that they do not emphasize biological differences but point out traits and behaviors. Today’s racism is covert: it is subtle and hidden, which makes defining the problem challenging, and what is the context in which Nike’s commercial exists.
Narrowing the scope, it seems that the context in which the commercial is put within Nike itself is not proactive either. The iconic “Just Do It” is not a campaign or a slogan: it is the corporation’s entire philosophy that dates back to the late 1980s. The first “Just do It” advertisements were addressing the issue of gender equality. For instance, the 1991 piece was telling women that it was never too late to “have a life (Creative Review, n.d.).” Another one from 1995 titled “If you let me play” encouraged parents to let their little daughters play sports to give them confidence (Creative Review, n.d.). The advertisement had a social message: it suggested that fit women had better chances to stand for themselves and not tolerate abuse and domestic violence (Creative Review, n.d.). Nike’s commercial with Kaepernick is in line with the previous advertisements: it furthers the discussion but does not contribute anything radically new to it.
The reactiveness of Nike’s commercial is reflected in the fact that it responds to an existing problem, which is social inequality. However, knowing that Nike is not a non-for-profit organization but a giant corporation, it is only reasonable to ask what purpose this reaction serves. On the one hand, the company might be genuinely interested in the social causes that it promotes such as female empowerment, racial justice, and others. On the other hand, it would be naive to ignore the fact that businesses routinely harness social forces and trends to make a profit. The timing of the ad mentioned before proves that Nike has been pretty calculating in its approach. Besides, Kaepernick’s commercial does not offer any valuable solutions to solve the problem except for encouraging the disadvantaged to fight their way to the top. This approach completely dismisses the presence of oppression and makes survival, personal growth, and success entirely the responsibility of the oppressed.
As for the anatomy of the text, Nike’s commercial has a clear structure that is easy to follow. It starts with a hook: Kaepernick builds a personal connection with the viewer by describing a relatable situation where a person’s dreams are ridiculed. The video uses the “you” pronoun a lot to showcase that the viewer is at the center of the narration. The first few shots show Kaepernick looking into the camera from a distance that creates an impression of being involved in a personal conversation with him.
After a short introduction, the commercial alternates between pictures and videos of ordinary people doing sports and famous at least with Kaepernick as a narrator. The commercial appeals to the viewer’s ethos through the figure of Kaepernick: he is a renowned sportsman who has accomplished a lot in life despite racial injustice. Pathos advertisement techniques in the video are mostly realized through visuals and music. The commercial shows images of struggling people who eventually make their dreams come true – all accompanied by a touching piano tune. The commercial is appealing to logos as it makes a clear argument: if these peocaughtlght the adversity, anyone can. All the precedents of making it big despite difficulties confirm that it is possible.
All the examples used in the video follow two sentence structures: “Don’t be the fastest runner in the world, be the fastest ever” or “If you have only one hand, don’t just watch football – play it (Hoops Daily, 2018).” The use of gradation (a series of expressions the sentiment of which gradually increases) is meant to encourage the viewer to up the ante and increase their level of ambition. In the end, the commercial comes full circle as Kaepernick answers the question he asked in the very beginning. He concludes that the viewer should not doubt the plausibility of their dreams but dream of even bigger things.
While the video highlights the juxtaposition between the disadvantaged people and the system, it never pays enough attention to the latter. For instance, at one point, the commercial shows a young football player and comments that being a refugee should not stop anyone from doing this sport. However, the question as to exactly what structures and systems in place could prevent a person with a refugee background from achieving their dreams is never answered.
To conclude, Nike’s commercial starring Kaepernick is a discrete piece of text with clear boundaries. The version of the commercial used for this critique is unoriginal as it was posted on YouTube after it had been shown to thousands of viewers at sports events. The commercial is reactive: it is a logical continuation of Nike’s “Just Do It” philosophy and in line with contemporary social trends. Nike’s timing makes one wonder whether its reaction to the social problem was genuine or a part of a larger strategy to gain attention and increase profits. One thing is clear: Nike and Kaepernick prefer to sugarcoat the truth and create generic motivational commercials even if it means ignoring the crucial aspects of the very problems that they address.
References
- Abad-Santos, A. (2018). Why the social media boycott over Colin Kaepernick is a win for Nike. Vox. Web.
- Creative Review. (n.d.). The history of Nike’s Just Do IDoesslogan.
- Gliniecki, B. (2018). Law and Marxism: The state and the constitution. Web.
- Hoops Daily. (2018). Colin Kaepernick JUST DO IT Nike Commercial 2018 feat LeBron James & other athletes[Video file]. Web.
- Lawrence, A. (2019). The NFL is 70% black, so why is its TV coverage so white?The Guardian. Web.
- Lopez, G. (2016). The sneaky language today’s politicians use to get away with racism and sexism. Vox. Web.