Advertising traditional family values

In recent years, Madison Avenue has mostly walked in lockstep with the progressive agenda to reinvent the American family. Consider the following commercials over the past decade or so: A same-sex couple joins the rest of the extended family around the table during a holiday. Two men discuss the joys of raising their toddler daughter together. Two women head to Las Vegas to get married.

Much of the time, the messaging aims to be either humorous or heartwarming. The desire is to signal to progressive elites that the company is sufficiently woke, minimize offense to those who hold traditional views of marriage and family, and sensitize viewers incrementally to accept LGBTQ as mainstream. Sometimes, however, companies misunderstand their customer base, resulting in backlash. The most infamous example is Bud Light, which faced a firestorm of criticism two years ago for its ad campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Nike is one company that has long been known for its progressive values. One Nike ad campaign featured Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who provoked considerable controversy by kneeling during the singing of the national anthem. The tagline: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Another Nike advertisement, aired for Pride Month in 2020, featured LGBTQ athletes. The tagline: “Be true. Until we all win.” Other commercials related to racial equality and women’s rights are far less controversial, though the timing of each tips the company’s hand. The racial equality ad came out during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, while the women’s equality ad was aired during the first Trump Administration.

While progressive companies haven’t necessarily reversed their views on social issues, a vibe shift is currently underway. Numerous news outlets reported the trend of companies dialing back ads promoting the LGBTQ agenda this past June during Pride Month. Now Nike has released a new advertisement for social media that celebrates the importance of family over athletic competition. Notably, the subject of the ad isn’t a progressive athletic icon, but Scottie Scheffler, who is currently the best professional golfer in the world.

On July 20, Scheffler decisively won The Open Championship—or as most Americans call it, the British Open. The Open is one of four professional golf tournaments that are so prestigious they are designated as “majors.” Scheffler’s win at the Open is his second major victory this year, and his fourth overall. He has been the No. 1 ranked professional golfer in the world for 148 consecutive weeks, which is the longest such streak since Tiger Woods held the position from 2005 to 2010.

In honor of Scheffler’s Open victory, Nike’s ad showed two frames. The first was a picture of Scheffler squatting down on a golf course to allow his toddler son, Bennett, to play with a putter. The tagline: “You’ve already won.” The second frame shows Scheffler swinging a club. The tagline: “But another major never hurt.” The messaging is clear: family is more important than golf. Even for the best golfer in the world. Even when he wins a major.

The advertisement is especially interesting for at least two reasons. First, Scheffler is a white man and an avowed evangelical Christian who is happily married to his wife and clearly delights in his young son. In other words, Scheffler’s personal life doesn’t represent the sorts of values typically highlighted in Nike ads. This fact is not lost among either the commenters who accused Nike of pandering to a new base or those who celebrated the ad and thanked Nike for departing from its typical woke advertising.

Another reason the ad is so interesting is because Scheffler has been in the news for more than just his major win. In the lead-up to the Open, Sheffler gave an interview that subsequently went viral. He suggested that he doesn’t find true fulfillment in winning golf tournaments. He talked about how victories are fleeting. He seemed almost ambivalent about his golf career.

Secular sportswriters weren’t sure what to make of Scheffler’s comments, leading some to speculate he might quit. Christian commentators who know that Scheffler is a fellow believer interpreted the comments differently, hearing echoes from the book of Ecclesiastes. Life is about so much more than hitting a little white ball toward a hole dug into a closely manicured lawn.

Chances are, Nike isn’t going to radically shift their advertising philosophy. After all, vibe shifts are fickle things by nature. But the fact that the Scheffler ad has provoked so much praise should signal to Nike and every other company that most Americans aren’t progressive activists. It’s OK to highlight and even celebrate traditional family values. It might even help some companies attract some new customers for their products.