Someone was trying to set up Nike customers in the worst way after fake coupons touting Colin Kaepernick were discovered online.
—Why we love Jenifer Lewis for repping Nike in support of Colin Kaepernick at the Emmy’s—
Kaepernick, who recently became the face of Nike’s new campaign, was featured on the bogus coupons promising large discounts off apparel. The coupons, , USA Today reports, targeted people of color with the accompanying message: “To show solidarity with the things WE believe in we are offering people of color 75% off any purchase of Nike’s shoes or apparel.”
To make matters even worse, Snopes uncovered that some of the online coupons that had a QR code that could be scanned, included the message: “This is a ROBBERY, Move slowly and put all the LARGE bills in the shoe box OR everyone DIES.”
However, Nike’s point-of-sale systems, doesn’t have a system that supports reading QR codes.
“I wouldn’t characterize this as a scam, but a full on racial epithet,” Jack Gillis, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America, said to USA Today in an email.
“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.”
—Nike launches powerful Colin Kaepernick campaign—
Racists are certainly trying it.
However, Nike fans are proving wrong the naysayers who predicted the sports retailer’s sales would slump after executives released a dramatic new promotion starring Kaepernick.
Since making Kaepernick the centerpiece of its newest “Just Do It” campaign, Nike’s online shoe sales have jumped up 31 percent, according to a report from Edison Trends, a San Francisco-based research firm. This is a good deal better than the 17 percent jump the retailer saw last year in the same time period, The Washington Post reports.