Politics in Advertising? : Data

It is often thought that inserting political views into a corporation’s marketing is a terrible idea as often it will turn customers away who would otherwise buy a product. That seemed to be the case in the days following the release of the controversial Nike ad campaign involving american football player Colin Kaepernick. For those who don’t know, Colin Kaepernick was an american football player on the San Francisco 49ers who generated a media storm after kneeling for the national anthem in an attempt to protest police brutality and racism. Nike’s tactic seemed to backfire and although it sparked much search interest on and near the release date September 5, 2018, according to the New York Times article “Nike Returns to Familiar Strategy With Kaepernick Ad Campaign” the Tuesday after the ad was released the “shares of Nike...were down $2.60, or more than 3 percent”. Yet despite the initial outlash overall, the plan seemed to work as Yahoo stated in a news video published on September 24 that “Nike’s market value has surged by nearly $6 billion dollars since [Nike]...unveiled its proactive ad campaign starring Colin Kaepernick”.