Controlling Your Cartoon: Nike and the Art of the Meme

In a polarized marketplace, the old rule that brands need broad appeal breaks down. The anger directed at Nike's Kaepernick campaign isn't a sign of failure. It's evidence that something more fundamental has shifted in how commercial identity actually works.

• Product differences have disappeared. Nike and its competitors sell nearly identical shoes. The only differentiator left is what buying the brand says about who you are. Everything Nike markets has to work on this identity level, not the product level.
• Neutrality is now impossible. In a split market with strong preferences on both sides, any centrist position loses to polarized competitors on the left and right simultaneously. This applies to sneakers as much as politics.
• Memes are the test of effectiveness. When your marketing gets repurposed, mocked, adapted, and spread across culture, that's not a bug. It means your cartoon is sharp enough to do what it needs to do.
• The anger proves it's working. Conventional thinking says backlash damages a brand. But in polarized systems, the opposition's anger signals you've successfully created a polarizing identity. Indifference would be the actual failure.
• The alternative is worse. If you don't control your own cartoon, your adversaries will impose one on you. Hillary Clinton had hers imposed. Trump created his. Only one strategy wins.