Cultural Identity With The New Nike And Colin Kaepernick Advertisement Campaign
Colin Kaepernick was selected to be the face of the Nike advertisement campaign, thrusting into global prominence, a controversial move that generated public backlash and support in equal measure. Kaepernick came into prominence when he led other athletes to kneeling as the American national anthem rang before matches in 2016. President emerged as a fierce critic of Kaepernick and perhaps engineered his dismissal from his team when he asked the owners of National Football League (NFL) to force players to stand when the national anthem was played. He later sued the NFL for wrongful dismissal, and Nike took from this angle to push through a message that Kaepernick is largely standing up for his ideals as an individual. BBC News reported that Kaepernick will receive a generous compensation from Nike to be the face of their advertisement campaign without playing over the past season.
On the other hand, Almee reporting for CNN, believes that the move by Nike will only serve to emboldened critics of Kaepernick and inspire his supporters to push through with the message. Finally, Creswell, Kevin and Sapna, reporting for the New York Times, provided a scenario analysis after Kaepernick was selected to be the face of Nike, as an afterthought decision after going through a raft of other possible candidates for the position. While the BBC News reported the news item on the eve of the announcement, both the CNN and the New York Times reported the news a week and a month after the announcement respectively. In which case, BBC News was a breaking news item in every sense of the word, while the other two were commentaries. Possibly, this is the reason why the report by BBC is rather short, while the information availed by the other two news outlets were comprehensive and long.
Obviously, for BBC, the announcement was consistent with the information they provided prior to the launch. However, for the other two news outlets, they have to analyzed and appraised based on the content and the analysis they provided. When CNN reported that the announcement will likely turn Kaepernick from a cultural star to a global icon, it appears to be misleading for a number of reasons. First, Kaepernick will not turn into a global icon because of the nature of the sports he is associated with. NFL is big in North America, but hardly watched by others in the rest of the world, and hence, the announcement will unlikely generate whispers in the rest of the world. CNN even likened him to Muhammad Ali of his generation. This is further from the truth, and it is essentially for the reason that while Ali was a legend in a sport followed by billions around the world, the NFL is hardly watched or even talked about by the rest of the world. Secondly, while Ali was embroiled in a fight for civil rights legislation and recognition, Kaepernick is leading a fight against another fight, although emboldened by the reach of social media. Hence, the report by CNN appears to be grossly overstated.
It is important to reiterate that the commentary by Creswell, Kevin and Sapna in the aftermath of the Nike deal with Kaepernick is principally new information to the audience and readers. Not every supporter of NFL, or a supporter of Kaepernick’s work on social justice knew that he was nearly dropped by Nike, before being embraced. Essentially, the three reporters are doing their work with reasonable expectation. The work of a news outlet is to relay information hitherto unknown to the audience for a fresh outlook into a certain situation. According to the New York Times, Nike made a brave decision to stand with someone who might hurt their bottom line by aligning with him. This is not really the case. Nike was prudent here and they sided with history, which tends to favor the bold. The whole issue does something that just standing on the sidelines never could have done: It brings hatred into the spotlight. There is absolutely no reason to be behind Kaepernick, unless one’s heart is filled with a strong opinion. Without doubt, Creswell, Kevin and Sapna might be right, that move might be great as it earned them free publicity with the kind of social media conversation it generated. People tend to forget that companies do not take decisions like the Kaepernick campaign without needlessly evaluating all potential outcomes, which run complex algorithms, which identity threats and possible mitigations. It is clear that Kaepernick is trying to bring to America’s attention that there are African-Americans that are wrongfully killed by the police. When the President asked NFL owners to force the players to stand for the anthem, he swam into a pond of some of the most egoistic personalities. Standing up when the national anthem is playing is supposed to be a unifying gesture. However, individuals including the president are using it as a stage to push their particular social justice cause or political agenda. Most football clubs are private business; their owners are in the business of pursuing wealth. Unfortunately, the divisiveness created by Colin lead protests and politics threatens the attendance and continued sponsorship. Each team has the right to employ the players it chooses to under the collective bargaining agreement with the players association. If an owner decides not to offer a contract to a player regardless of how talented; they are well within their rights. Nevertheless, when a NFL commissioner or a group of owners get together decides not to hire a player, then that would be collusion which is what Colin is suing the league for.
An unfortunate byproduct of protesting during the American national anthem is that it distracted people from the original message. Colin Kaepernick knew he was using the public forum of televised NFL games to bring attention to his agenda. He should also have been savvy enough to realize that individual team owners would not like the backlash, which is essentially known as the law of unintended consequences. He is responsible for his own actions. It is very interesting to see how this issue has generated the unintended consequences. If one is an employee, and did something that would offend half of one’s customer base while on the job, the employer would be quick, and justified to fire the employee to protect the business. Second, if an employer knew that hiring an employee would upset the company’s customer base it is understandable if the company decides against hiring the individual. Kaeprnick had a right to free speech and the right to taken any one to court if he thought he was wronged. However, he does not have a right to keep his job, when his employers think that his presence in the team would hurt their business. News as an approach to transferring information is important to a literate society as it provides general knowledge to the public. For instance, the report by New York Times contains an angle of the news that was not widely known. The general public did not know that Nike had reconsidered Kaerpernick to lead their advertisement campaign. Reading them daily widens the scope of knowledge. This is an important component of the process of learning and can be vital to the general public, and especially for those still learning in schools.
News can provide fascinating perspectives and ideas which can help readers in the process of acquiring knowledge. For students, news serves as a prime opportunity to wide vocabulary. Reading news creates a good habit, which is part of an informed life. Such a habit will broaden an individuals’ worldview and will enhance critical thinking process. Likewise, it will enrich an individual’s language comprehension as reading news in the any language is a healthy practice. News makes one to be well-informed. Moreover, it enables it spices life by encouraging a person to take part in discussions that relate to current news items. When a person actively participates in social group debate, it makes a person to feel a part of an enlightened public, and the only thing that prevent on from being part of these debates is ignorance. News will enrich an individual’s general knowledge and will guide one to be a good citizen and relate well with others.
