If we can be equals in sports, we can be equals everywhere.

  1. This ad was part of a Nike Equality campaign that launched in 2017, in an attempt to raise awareness and reinforce the positive values and aspects of sports both on and off the court. In this particular advertisement, we can see LeBron James, an athlete known for his fight on inequality and social justice. Although the ad doesn’t necessarily advertise any Nike products in specific, it is a brand advertisement aimed at improving Nike’s reputation and establishing themselves as an ethical company leading the fight on current world issues such as inequality, global warming, and many more. As the world’s biggest sports manufacturer, Nike already has a far-reaching voice and continues to influence athletes around the world. The combination of a global and outspoken superstar such as LeBron James, with the dark background and contrasting sentence in white, relays a powerful message on social equality. Although Nike has stepped up their efforts in recent times to improve their brand image, there is still an element of obscurity and darkness behind the scenes. Despite fighting for equality and social justice, Nike still employs sweatshop workers in several South-East Asian countries such as Thailand and Vietnam. These employees are paid 0.2$ an hour on average and spend their lives working in abysmal conditions that neglect their safety and wellbeing. The fact that Nike continues to advertise for equality while maintaining their production through sweatshops is absurd and incredibly hypocritical. Despite this being common knowledge, Nike still manages to portray themselves as an ethical company that fights for justice around the world, allowing them to capture even more consumers and boost their already widespread reach. This campaign was incredibly successful in large part because it was launched around the time Colin Kaepernick took a knee during national anthems before NFL games. Since Kaepernick already had a large set of supporters for his cause, Nike capitalized on the opportunity by launching an equality campaign to raise even more awareness on Kaepernick’s situation and to propel themselves into the media and discussion on social justice. This strategy was incredibly effective despite its hypocritical nature.
  2. As mentioned before, the main goal of Nike’s advertisement was to raise awareness surrounding the Kaepernick situation and encourage people to fight for equality and social justice. By replacing the image of LeBron James with the image of a young woman that is clearly working in a sweatshop under grueling conditions, the adjam now conveys the absurdity and hypocrisy of Nike’s statement. On the one hand, we have a multi-billion international juggernaut that portrays itself as an ethical company fighting for equality and on the other hand we have one of their employees that is slaving (yes, slaving) away on a pair of Nike shoes. The juxtaposition of the young sweatshop worker, next to Nike’s inspiring and powerful message is meant to appeal to the audience’s pathos and raises questions surrounding Nike’s corporate intentions and labor practices. Nike advocates for equality and social justice while failing to even provide their employees with humane working conditions. If this isn’t hypocrisy at its finest, I don’t know. It is almost scary how Nike and other large apparel brands continue to get away with these unethical practices while still managing to put forth a positive brand image. Even in today’s digital era where privacy is almost nonexistent, these companies manage to flood social media with social justice and sustainability campaigns, almost brainwashing people into believing their goals and values while keeping their obscure and unethical practices wrapped behind the scenes. Nike’s target segment for this campaign was most likely young and active people that place a great importance on ethics and social values. Although Nike may have succeeded in raising awareness on inequality, ironically, they also raised awareness on their own unethical practices and mistreatment of employees. In summary, the original advertisement calls for equal treatment and is further reinforced with the image of LeBron, an athlete known for his fight on equality. These 2 aspects run in parallel and put together, they further enforce the weight and importance of their message. In contrast, rather than using 2 images that convey the same message and reinforce each other, the adjam employs 2 powerful images that are almost each other’s antithesis, highlighting the hypocrisy surrounding Nike’s unethical practices.