“Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything," Nike’s ad campaign in September 2018 featured this tagline and former NFL football player Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem at a football game in 2016 in protest of racial inequality and was banned from the NFL. Nike’s ad stirred controversy and different responses among consumers. Some celebrated Nike for supporting Kaepernick while others boycotted the brand and went as far as destroying their Nike products. As a consumer and future communications professional, this sparked my interest as to how consumers perceive brands that create ads or make statements around political or social issues.
Read more about what I discovered in my research about political consumerism, changing ideas of corporate social responsibility and what it means for brands that attempt to engage in society's current issues.