Mass controversy has attacked the Nike corporation the past couple of weeks due to their newest add which features Colin Kaepernick, or the first person to begin a series of protests against various injustices within the United States by kneeling during the National Anthem before playing professional football for the San Francisco 49ers. After causing mass political controversy and an overall decrease in national rankings for the NFL, Nike decided that this was the perfect voice-over for their newest commercial ad titled: "Dream Crazy".
Despite all of the political praise or criticism that Nike has received since releasing this controversial ad, not one person-despite their political appraisal or objection to the ad-has called attention to Nike's affiliation with manufacturing their products in "sweatshops". This is not a new insult at the Nike franchise because the company has been linked to manufacturing their products with child labor in sweatshops many times before. In 1998, one of Nike's founders Phil Knight ADMITTED Nike's affiliation to these inhumane working conditions saying, "The Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse". Even though this was a quote from twenty years ago, Nike has not changed much since then.
In 2005, Nike disclosed all their factory locations due to reports of abuse in Chinese factories. Since then, Nike has promised to limit their production in that region because impoverishment is a common reality and the workers within these factories are usually children who are supposed to work an ungodly number of hours in poor working conditions. Yet, most Nike factories are found within Asia -- in Indonesia, China, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Philippines, and Malaysia. Out of those countries listed, only three are considered "first-world countries", while the other four are either "second" or "third world countries". Regardless of their world status, it does not mean that there are millions of poor people who live in these Asian countries who send their children off to work at Nike factories to help put food on the table.
Regardless of whether or not a country with Nike factories within it is rich or not, any factory that manufactures a product should not include inhumane working conditions, such as child labor, unreasonable hours, or insultingly low wages. In 2001, Vietnam, the country that contains the most Nike factory workers, earned less than $75 American dollars for a month's salary.
Despite Nike's attempts over the years to cover up their affiliations with these inhumane working conditions, Nike has still shown no compassion for those who make their products by refusing to associate with the Worker's Rights Consortium. A Nike spokesperson addressed the company's reasoning for doing so by stating, "We respect the Worker Rights Consortium's (WRC) commitment to workers' rights while recognizing that the WRC was co-created by United Students Against Sweatshops, a campaigning organization that does not represent the multi-stakeholder approach that we believe provides valuable, long-lasting change".
So while Nike releases an ad encouraging its American audience to "chase their dreams, no matter how crazy", do you think they would ever consider the dreams of children whose hands ache after making hundreds of Nike products a day? Do you think Nike ever considers making their dreams come true? Do you think Nike would ever tell its underpaid child-workers to "Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything"? What if their laborers cannot sacrifice everything, like Colin Kaepernick, who simply sacrificed making millions of dollars playing professional football in the richest country in the world to now making television ads where he still makes millions of dollars and is revered for kneeling during the National Anthem for a country that has allowed him to do so.
Despite Nike's "good intentions" to receive support from the Democratic party, Black Lives Matter, and other left-wing agendas, they failed to recognize the backlash they would receive for being a company that has been linked to sweatshops and child labor multiple times throughout its existence.
The mass controversy that has broken out about Nike's newest advertisement should have less to do with the political banter between President Trump, Kaepernick, and the NFL and more to do with the credibility of Nike, a company that is proven time and time again to produce its products in sweatshops.
Sorry not sorry, Nike. When you tell me to follow my dreams, yet you crush the hopes and dreams of children trapped making your products, I cannot "Just Do It".
I JUST have to DO something about IT.
