The backlash has been quick and painful for Nike, which selected Colin Kaepernick to be part of its "Just Do It" marketing campaign, but experts say the reward outweighs the risk, Newsradio 1200 WOAI reports.
Social media, this week, has been flooded with customer posting videos and photos of themselves destroying Nike products and announcing a boycott. But UTSA Sports Marketing Professor David Bojanic says they were not likely the brand's target demographic.
"It's skewed toward a lower-age group. The basketball division has been skewed to African American clientele. They know those people will likely react favorable to the ad campaign," he says.
And, for the most part, that has been true. NBA star LeBron James was one of many who signaled their support of Kaepernick's role in the campaign.
The ads start just as the NFL season begins. The league released a statement, saying the role and responsibility of everyone involved with professional football is promote meaningful, positive change.
"The social justice issues that Colin and other professional athletes have raised deserve our attention and action," it reads.
Bojanic says the decisions about who to feature in ad campaigns, especially for a company the size of Nike, are not done in a vacuum. There's a science to it.
"They did all their homework," he says. "They looked at the costs and benefits for doing the campaign and decided the benefits outweighs the costs."
But, on Wall St., the costs were real, with Nike's stock dipping. While individual investors come and go, the real concern, he says, is that Mutual Funds will get scared away.
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