Just Do It - Protest!

On September 3rd, 2018, former National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick tweeted
a photo of an advertisement for Nike’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign. 
The advertisement exploded.  In the first 24 hours alone, Bloomberg reported that is garnered
$43 million worth of free media exposure.
Kaepernick is perhaps most famous for his social activism.  During the 2016 NFL season, he
began taking a knee to protest police brutality and racial inequality during the playing of the U.S.
national anthem.  It’s been a hot button and divisive cultural issue ever since. 
In our Language and Literature classroom, we have the opportunity to discuss this
advertisement, the various messages it promotes, and the language surrounding athletes taking
a stand for their beliefs.  You will get an opportunity to discuss a big cultural issue, but through
close textual analysis of the language, images, and more in the advertisement. 
This body of work explores all three areas of exploration. 
At the start, this type of work will fall under “Readers, writers, texts."  Students will also get to
place this advertisement in a specific time period, analysing it again thinking about the context of
production and reception.  After that, the unit will shift to showing you that this isn’t the first time
an athlete has protested racial or gender inequality.  You will explore protests in tennis, track and
field, and boxing.  This cultural and historical context comes under the “Time and space” section
of the syllabus. Finally, you will look back at various Nike advertisements over the past 30 years,
connecting older ads to newer ones, looking for similarities and differences between them.  It will
ask you to see how previous Nike ads are in conversation with newer ads as well as how they
build, expand, modify, and change over time.  While not even close to a definition of
intertextuality, these questions and activities ask students to consider how texts interact with one
another.    
This is an opportunity to analyse texts that matter.
Lesson Starter
Show the advertisement. Then, ask the question below to the class.  Discuss it for 10-15
minutes.  Try to keep the focus on Nike and the selling of shoes, apparel, and their brand rather
than Kaepernick.  That will come later in the lesson. 
Is this advertisement just an opportunity for Nike to sell more merchandise?
Readers, Writers, Texts
Show the advertisement again.  Ask the following questions:

1. Why is this advert in black and white?  What is the effect on the audience?
2. Kaepernick’s face is one of two images on the advertisement (the other being the small Nike
swoosh).  What is the effect of mainly presenting Kaepernick’s face on the advert?
3. What does the word “sacrifice” denote?  What’s the connotation of the word in this
advertisement?
4. Why is staring with the word “believe” a powerful beginning?  Explain.
5. What is the relationship between the words “something” and “everything”?  What’s the
effect?
6. Technically, this advert is incorrectly punctuated.  Explain what’s wrong.
7. And why doesn’t that matter?  What’s the intended effect of the punctuation and sentence
structure?
8. Nike’s slogan “Just do it” and their trademark “swoosh” are on the bottom of the
advertisement.  Why does that matter?

Plenary
Share your ideas concerning the close textual analysis of the language, images, symbols, and
more in the advertisement. 

Time and Space 

Consider the context of production and context of reception.  Some background reading at this
point may help. Three articles are provided to help you improve your knowledge and increase
your awareness.
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3

Context of Production Questions

1. Who is Colin Kaepernick?
2. Why is he revered and hated at the same time?
3. What happened to Colin Kaepernick’s career and how does that influence how you view the
ad?
4. The killing of unarmed African-American males in the U.S. has hit headline news since the
death of Michael Brown in 2014.  What does that have to do with this advertisement?