Nike’s Dream Crazy campaign and how it influenced views and opinions towards the brand

Abstract: Purpose: In 2018 Nike launched an advertisement campaign called “Dream Crazy” that provoked controversial reactions in social media and large coverage in the media. This qualitative study aims to find out what Swedish students aged 19-24 think of specifically the political aspect of that campaign, and how much it matters and influences their decision making when choosing products. Methodology: Data was collected through in-depth face-to-face interviews and subsequently analyzed through a method called thematic analysis as described mainly by Brown and Clarke (2006). The interview guide was formed to accommodate the aim and purpose of the study, which allowed for some themes to be created based on theoretical background, other themes were found through applying guidelines from the literature. Theoretical perspectives: The data material was mainly looked at through the lens of political consumerism, however understanding theory regarding brand image, brand personality and brand meaning was required in order to apply political consumerism to this case. Empirical foundation: The empirical material is based on in-depth one to one interviews. Conclusions: The participants generally viewed the campaign in a positive light and recognized that Nike had an agenda. The agenda was seen as being based on either monetary gains or bringing awareness to societal issues. Some participants argued whether or not Nike should engage in politics and societal issues but the general consensus seems to be positive towards that Nike is trying to spread awareness regarding the societal issues. There is definite cynicism throughout the findings illustrating how the participants question Nike’s agenda and multinational companies in general. This is consistent with previous literature regarding cynicism towards campaigns that use societal issues in their campaigns (Edelman, 2019). A minority of the participants express some level of understanding for Nike’s financial responsibilities. The societal issues that are brought up in the campaign do not seem to affect our target group since they feel disconnected to the issue due to the physical and psychological differences. Price and quality outweigh the political aspect and Nike’s choice to bring awareness to societal issues is claimed to not have an effect on purchasing decisions, nor the view of Nike as a brand, by the majority of the participants.