By Felicity Duncan
Nike has been courting controversy (and making money) over the last few days with a series of ads featuring contentious athletes. In the US, Nike sparked a boycott and boosted sales by a reported 31% with an ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, a former NFL player who started the practice of kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality. On Monday, Nike posted another ad with a controversial athlete at its heart – a 60-second spot featuring South African runner Caster Semenya. If you haven’t yet seen it, you should.
It’s a bold advertising campaign and one that has generated enormous attention for the brand. The marketing people at Nike should take a bow. It’s also good to see athletes like Kaepernick and Semenya collecting (I hope) generous cheques for their role in the campaign.
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In Premium today, you can find out what lessons Turkey’s currency crisis holds for South Africa. You can listen to Investec Asset Management’s John Green reflecting on the state of the nation and you can find out why robots are making more and more of our food.
