Nike's latest "Just Do It" ad featuring Colin Kaepernick has been candy for public discussion and punditry, but especially for those unqualified people who like to chime in about their political views on the internet, like 50 Cent and Donald Trump. 2 Chainz even said that the Nike ad was going to "start a race war and a purge."
It could be, but that remains to be seen. What we do know is that the ad did its job and has brought Nike's online sales up by 31% this week (Sunday to Thursday), compared to a 17% increase in the same period last year. After the ad first came out, Nike's stock dipped a little and many speculated that that would be the permanent effect of the TV spot. But apparently, shoe shoppers and stockbrokers are more woke than we give them credit for.
The ad itself, which features the tagline ""Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything," has been relentlessly parodied, with people like Michael Jordan, Kanye West and Floyd Mayweather acting as (easy) targets for an angry internet mob that includes 50 Cent and Chance The Rapper. The people over at Nike definitely had this in mind when the hatched the idea for the ad, but they couldn't have known that mentions of Nike on social media would jump by 1678%, and Colin Kaepernick mentions by 362,280%, according to Market Watch.
Watch the whole ad below: