Nike Is Discovering That Colin Kaepernick Is Not as Popular With America as He Is With the Woke Crowd

A large billboard showing Colin Kaepernick stands on top of the building housing the Nike store at Union Square Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in San Francisco. An endorsement deal between Nike and Colin Kaepernick prompted a flood of debate Tuesday as sports fans reacted to the apparel giant backing an athlete known mainly for starting a wave of protests among NFL players of police brutality, racial inequality and other social issues. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

It was supposed to be a move of marketing genius. Choose a failed player who tried to create controversy around his actions to bully some team, somewhere, into signing him, portray the controversy as something totally woke and the opponents as racist, and use his endorsement as a way to increase sales in a highly competitive industry. Top it off with letting it be known that the people who don’t like the new icon can just f*** right off because you are interested in the market after they are dead or irrelevant. This, apparently, was the strategy behind Nike deciding to sign Colin Kaepernick as the face of their company.

Nike didn’t just embrace Colin Kaepernick because of his views … its market research was clear — the race, age and political views of most Nike customers are in sync with the new ad campaign.

Sources with direct knowledge of Nike’s demographics have given TMZ an inside look into the company, and it paints a clear picture of consumers who generally support Kaepernick’s protest.
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Short story … Nike made a big statement by its new Kaepernick ad campaign, but the people most likely to protest are outside the company’s sweet spot.

That said, there was a bonus for Nike … numbers aside, we’re told they wanted a campaign promoting social change that current and future athletes would embrace.

So, Nike’s response to the protesters who want to boycott — Just do it!

And they did. Since the campaign was announced, Nike has lost $3.75 billion in market capitalization.

These people are stupid.

Nike Loses $3.75 Billion in Market Cap After Colin Kaepernick Named Face of ‘Just Do It’ Ads https://t.co/SqFUz0Ugpx

— Praying Medic (@prayingmedic) September 6, 2018

They attracted the attention of police unions.

Taking a Knee with Police Pig Socks is considered sacrificing everything? Our soldiers are the real heroes not Kaepernick. pic.twitter.com/finz3kXq4x

— Terrence K. Williams (@w_terrence) September 4, 2018

https://twitter.com/VickiMcKenna/status/1037728717185994754

And the demographics they thought would flock to a failed quarterback wearing police-as-pigs socks don’t seem to be all that keen on a no-can-hang athlete with a talent for self-aggrandizement:

Key Findings
1. Nike’s Favorability Drops by Double Digits: Before the announcement, Nike had a net +69 favorable impression among consumers, it has now declined 34 points to +35 favorable.
2. No Boost Among Key Demos: Among younger generations, Nike users, African Americans, and other key demographics, Nike’s favorability declined rather than improved.
3. Purchasing Consideration Also Down: Before the announcement, 49 percent of Americans said they were absolutely certain or very likely to buy Nike products. That figure is down to 39 percent now.
4. The Effect on the NFL Seems Small, For Now: Forty percent of consumers said Nike’s campaign does not make them more or less likely to watch/attend NFL games — 21 percent said more likely and 26 percent said less likely (14 percent didn’t know).

There is literally nothing in this survey that does not scream “Disaster.”

Chart from Morning Consult https://morningconsult.com/form/nike-kaepernick-report/

Young people: down 30 points.
Democrats: down 9 points.
Blacks: down 8 points.
Current Nike customers: down 15 points.

The great thing about this is that they are paying Kaepernick eight figures to burn their brand to the ground and they lack the ability to call off this campaign quickly because they’ve doubled down on the FOAD message: