A black-and-white portrait, a polarising endorsement
On 5 September 2018, Nike opened the 30th anniversary of Just Do It with a black-and-white close-up portrait of Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who began kneeling during the U.S. national anthem in 2016 to protest racial injustice. Across his face ran the line, "Believe in something. Even if it costs you everything."
The image, released through Kaepernick's own social channels, served as the prelude to Dream Crazy, a two-minute film narrated by Kaepernick and produced by Wieden+Kennedy. The campaign extended through print, social, and out-of-home placements across the United States and select international markets.
The film and its athletes
The Dream Crazy film featured a roster of athletes whose stories were positioned as departures from convention. The cast included Serena Williams, LeBron James, Eliud Kipchoge, the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team, Shaquem Griffin, and amateur athletes living with disabilities. The narration framed each story around a single editorial idea, that athletic ambition is most meaningful when measured against expectation rather than outcome.
Kaepernick had not played in the National Football League since the 2016 season and had filed a collusion grievance against the league. Nike's decision to centre the campaign on him drew immediate political response. Some consumers staged public boycotts and posted videos of burning Nike products. Online sales rose by 31 percent in the days following the launch.
Strategic context and recognition
The campaign represented a calibrated extension of Nike's long-running positioning. Wieden+Kennedy had built the brand's editorial voice around outsider narratives since the original 1988 tagline. By placing Kaepernick at the centre of the anniversary, Nike linked a contemporary cultural debate to its founding rhetorical position, athletic performance as a personal stand against external judgement.
According to industry estimates, the campaign generated more than 163 million U.S. dollars in earned media and added approximately 6 billion U.S. dollars in brand value within weeks of launch. Dream Crazy won the Outstanding Commercial Emmy Award in 2019 and the Grand Prix in the Creative Effectiveness category at the 2020 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
The campaign also documented a strategic willingness to absorb short-term reputational risk in pursuit of longer-term brand definition, a trade-off Nike has continued across subsequent campaigns including You Can't Stop Us in 2020 and Winning Isn't For Everyone at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Source: Guardian Sport Youtube
