Nike alerted consumers and their employees about a bogus coupon that’s offering minorities massive in-store discounts.
The fake online token located on 4chan has Colin Kaepernick’s image printed on it and reads, “Nike offers 75% off all shoes for people of color until 2019.”
The bogus coupon was created by online trolls, USA Today reports. Another fake Nike token called for “solidarity with the things WE believe in we are offering people of color 75% off any purchase of Nike’s shoes or apparel.”
The coupon follows after the premiere of Nike’s controversial “Just Do It” campaign ad featuring former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The football player kneeled during the national anthem in 2016 to protest social injustices and police brutality.
The athlete told NFL Media in August 2016, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. … To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
The ad campaign produced a backlash from many conservatives, including officials at colleges, state agencies, and cities, who said their institutions will begin to boycott Nike products.
The executive director of the Consumer Federation of America, Jack Gillis, said the coupon not just a “scam, but a full-on racial epithet.”
“This is nothing more than a dog whistle to a small, and unfortunate, segment of America. Another way to put it is that this is a racial statement masquerading as a scam,” said Gillis. “Scams related to brand names generally attempt to sell something that appears to be branded by the well-known name but is a fake.”
