The advertisement, made by Nike, is promoting their move to a zero carbon waste future. Nike is a brand known for its athletic apparel and footwear used by the general public as well as accomplished athletes and people of fame. This advertisement is a still, digital image found on google with the search, “Nike Sustainability.” The advertisement has a white and black grid background with a black banner at the top of the image with “Move To Zero” and “Nike’s journey toward a zero carbon waste future.” In the centre of the image is a freeform shape with an image of wildflowers against a wispy cloudy sky. In the foreground, there are three shapes creating movement around the still image. On the left side, a young woman dressed in all Nike apparel holds a stretch behind her back to reflect the brand’s active spirit. Her clothes are various tints of beige, fitting an organic colour scheme, which reflect minimal and natural materials. In the top middle is a grouping of text, “Move to Zero” with a spool of yarn creating the stem of a white flower, reflecting Nike’s movement to using eco-friendly materials for fabrics. This minimalistic text group is the main subject of the advertisement and draws your eyes to it. And finally, the shape on the bottom right of the advertisement, is black and white line art of a nature scene made of cartoon plants around the Nike swoosh. This graphic might suggest Nike’s concept of conservation and eco-friendliness. On the Nike Sustainability page, a saying, “Bloom over Doom” allows for a better to better understanding of the use of plants and flower on the advertisement (nike.com). Altogether, the advertisement is busy with many individualized elements overlaying each other, forcing your eyes to continuously travel around the image.
The “Move to Zero” advertisement is looking to convey the message of their environmentally friendly movement towards zero carbon and waste by using graphics, images, and text. This advertisement is very eye-catching and unique in the way it is formatted with the consisting elements. Each element highlights something about the movement, from modelling the athletic brand, to nature scenes, and using organic colours. The target audience for the advertisement is the customers who buy Nike products, and those and care about the origins and manufacturing processes of their purchases.
While it may be difficult to read the top banner of the advertisement where it describes what the “Move To Zero” entails, by looking at both of the text boxes the audience can put together the message by filling in the blanks. While saying very little, this advertisement may allow the audience to connect the nature to the brand and understand Nike’s goal to be more sustainable and move to zero carbon and zero waste. However, this advertisement does not share any information in Nike’s efforts in their “Move To Zero” nor explain changes they are making to reach this goal. Another item left out of the advertisement is the timeline of their goal, next year, next decade, the viewer does not know when the “Move To Zero” initiative is projected to be met. The audience is required to visit the Nike sustainability webpage to learn about the environmental practices the brand is using. Nike claims to be contributing 0.5 million tons less of greenhouse gas emissions, 100% waste diverted from landfill, and 25% reduction of freshwater usage per kilogram in production (nike.com). By using environmentally friendly materials like cotton, polyester, leather, and rubber, Nike is taking big steps in reaching their goal.
The public are cautious of greenwashing advertisements. Diandra and Aprilianty conclude from their study of how consumers perceive Nike’s initiatives, greenwashing perceptions and misleading environmental claims will have severe effects on consumer trust (108). They examine how consumers are wary of accepting an advertisement with little or, in this case, no information about initiative to make changes towards sustainability.
The article by Angeles examines the use of how major companies must “pursue initiatives way beyond ‘green washing’ efforts” (96). The article suggests that consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of sustainable practices. The eco-design trend adopted by many famous brands like Nike are responding to consumer demand of sustained production (Angeles, 106). In the past, Nike has responded to public criticizing by creating a “firm-wide training program in 2000 focused on product sustainability,” can consumers trust Nike will be able to make those changes again (Angeles, 100)?
As Sun examined, Nike is working to upcycle rubber from old shoes and instead of creating waste, reusing it for people to make flooring and skateboards. This demonstrates how Nike acts in their sustainable manufacturing and their commitment to reducing environmental waste (471). Nike is a brand that is taking initiatives to reduce their environmental impacts by setting the goal of zero carbon waste.
Greenwashing is an issue that many consumers have become increasingly aware of and large brand names are responding. Nike has faced public criticism before and have made changes to their manufacturing and products. With a goal of reducing to zero carbon and zero waste, Nike’s sustainability initiatives are likely to make an impact on purchasers. Consumers are wary of greenwashing advertisements which highlights the importance of transparency and verifiability in marketing. Nike is advertising their initiative to reduce their footprint and reduce to zero carbon and zero waste in the future.
Angeles, Rebecca. 2014. “Using the Technology-Organization-Environment Framework for Analyzing Nike’s Considered Index Green Initiative, a Decision Support System-Driven System.” Journal of Management and Sustainability Vol. 4 (1): 96-113. https://heinonline-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/HOL/Page?public=true&handle=hein.journals/jms4&div=10&start_page=96&collection=journals&set_as_cursor=0&men_tab=srchresults
Diandra, Patricia, and Fitri Aprilianty. 2024. “The Impact of Greenwashing Towards Brand Trust and Brand Loyalty: A Study of Nike Move to Zero Initiatives.” Mandalika Journal of Business and Managements Studies 3 (1): 85-114. https://journal.institutemandalika.com/index.php/mjbms/article/view/133
Nike, Inc. “Sustainability”. Nike. https://www.nike.com/sustainability
Sun, Jian. 2024. “The Influence of Sustainable Development on Consumers’ Behaviors in Fashion Industry — The Case of NIKE.” Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences 28: 466-73. https://doi.org/10.54097/t08z7618
Brenna
After reading this I think Cali wrote this well. It was an easy read and stayed on topic while hitting her main points. They addressed greenwashing as something more people are suspicious about after seeing so many ads like the Nike Move to Zero campaign. The public is making points to show how companies should be held accountable for false advertising and try sustainable practices. The first main point I found was how the ad didn’t specify why or how Nike was moving to zero waste. They also wrote about how nowhere in the image or banner on top of it did Nike say when they would be zero waste. The second main point was a large examination of the ad was done through an artistic lens. Cali wrote a good paragraph on the composition and general tone of the Nike ad. The third is a general note on how more and more the public pressure brands will respond to that criticism, this was shown through the sun making an article about how Nike upcycles rubber from old shoes. I think a few more scholarly sources might have benefitted the end product if I were to criticize anything missing. Over all well done though.