OPINION:
When a company gets involved in political controversies, its sales often suffer. Footwear manufacturer Nike is the latest example of the adage “Go woke, go broke.”
S&P Dow Jones Indices just announced that, before trading opens on Sept. 21, Nike will be dropped from its S&P 100, a position the company has held for nearly 18 years.
Nike’s stock now trades at a five-year low. At its peak in 2021, Nike’s shares traded at $179.10. On Friday midday, its shares traded at $36.84, a drop of roughly 80%.
The company bet big time on political activism — and lost big time.
It started with former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who famously (or infamously) refused to stand for the national anthem. His reason? To protest what he called a flag that oppresses Black people and other people of color.
If that is true, then why do millions of Black people and other people of color come here each year, legally and illegally? Because they like being oppressed?
Nike followed that triumph with its 2023 ad campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who partnered with the company by modeling women’s leggings and sports bras. This followed Dylan Mulvaney’s disastrous stint touting Bud Light, after which Bud Light’s sales plummeted.
What Nike’s CEO missed is that when it comes to sneakers, consumers have a lot of options, including Adidas, Converse and New Balance. Why go out of your way to offend patriots and those who believe there are only two genders, and that those are fixed at birth?
Virtue-signaling plays a part in such decisions. CEOs and advertising managers at some of our largest corporations are graduates of elite colleges and universities, where they were taught that being a good corporate citizen means supporting the left’s agenda.
Corporations do have responsibilities to their shareholders and the public. For shareholders, that includes making a profit. To the public, it entails honesty, integrity and accountability. Neither obligation is served by advertising that offends a sizable portion of the customer base.
The great thing about capitalism — and members of the Democratic Socialists of America might want to take note of this — is that bad decisions always have consequences.
With merchandising, there is freedom of movement from one brand to another.
How many failures along the lines of Nike and Anheuser-Busch (Bud Light’s parent company) will it take for corporate leaders who like to dabble in politics to get the message?
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