Farage’s ‘False Flag’ Adidas
A fortnight ago Rishi Sunak apologised for the damage he did to the credibility of popular trainer brand Adidas Sambas after wearing a pair in a podcast interview, during one of his infinite attempts to appear down with the kids.
Adidas were presumably still reeling from the reputation damage caused by a stuffy right wing politician co-opting a product marketed to the hipsterishly progressive when no less an influencer than Nigel Farage poked fun at the incident by posting an Instagram reel of himself in the style of a hashtag#ad wearing adidas Gazelles and stating his preference for Adidas over the “politically correct” Nike
Farage is a relentless clout chaser who would do just about anything for clicks, but for him to jump on a two-week old joke, and in the process “ruin” another product by the same brand, almost feels targeted. This has led to some only-half-joking speculation that the Farage video, far from being Adidas endorsed influencer content, was in fact a ‘false flag’ attack on Adidas by Nike.
That’s right, in an attempt to exploit the opportunity created by legions of East London hipster lefties flinging their Sambas into the River Lee canal, Nike doubled down and decided to hijack the Gazelle market with an even more powerfully repulsive ‘disinfluencer’. Don’t wait for Rory Sutherland ‘s TED talk on this new and powerful marketing phenomenon: you heard it here first…