A lot has happened since Dylan Mulvaney pranced around his yard in a Nike sports bra last April.
Days after his face appeared on Bud Light cans — the controversy that launched a thousand boycotts — the sight of him doing jumping jacks in women’s workout gear was almost worst. And a stock chart that looks like a downhill ski slope proves it.
Months after the country protested with a bonfire of bra burning, the only swoosh Nike hears now is the sound of profits gushing.
While Bud Light hogged most of the spotlight with its historic collapse, the devastation of Nike’s trans advocacy is real.
By August of last year, the brand of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods was experiencing what experts called “its biggest losing streak since 1980.” With catastrophic losses — upwards of $13 billion dollars in market value — consumer outrage was packing a serious punch.
Angry women led the charge, lashing out at the company as an insult to females everywhere. “The ad feels like a parody of what women are.
That Nike would do this feels like a kick in the teeth,” one posted.
Others blasted the brand for making a “mockery out of women,” vowing never to buy another thing from a company that chose a man “over all the hardworking women who workout regularly in your activewear.” It’s “absolutely disgusting.”
Most people just couldn’t understand the marketing logic. “Why doesn’t Nike pay a real women to promote a product that is solely for women?” they wanted to know.
