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Al’s Afternoon Tea: Nike’s ‘Winning Isn’t for Everyone’ Slogan Is a Loser, Brittney Griner Weeps Over National Anthem for the Right Reasons

By Al Perrotta Published on August 12, 2024 •

Al Perrotta

Welcome back in for Al’s Afternoon Tea, our chance to stop and sample some of the latest news and headlines.

Nike’s “Winning Isn’t for Everyone” Slogan

Now that the Olympics are over, can I ask a question:?

Was anyone else bothered by Nike’s snarky new “Winning Isn’t for Everyone” ad campaign? In my mind, it made top athletes out to be arrogant jerks — a notion confirmed this weekend by Lebron James (who was heavily featured in the campaign) when he blew off a kid who just wanted to take a picture with him.

Nike rose to the top of the sneaker ranks decades ago with its “Just Do It” ad campaign. Just Do It is populist. It encourages everyone to action, whether that means competing at the Olympics or simply getting off the couch to hit the gym. It’s positive. Uplifting.

By contrast, “Winning Isn’t for Everyone” is elitist. It says that some people are just cut out to be losers, to not be good enough. To not be as good as me. “I’m not bad if I want to spike the ball in your face — just better than you.”

Watch this, if you haven’t yet seen Nike’s “Am I a Bad Person” spot.

A trade website called The Drum, which explores global brand-building trends, agreed the campaign is toxic. In an article titled “Nike will lose if it thinks ‘winning isn’t for everyone’ inspires us,” Managing Director Fernando Desouches wrote:

The messages and values that Nike broadcasts are currency to many. Therefore, when it proclaims “I have no remorse. I have no sense of compassion. I want to take what’s yours and never give it back,” it’s validating [that] this as OK and safe.

It’s no secret that many young men are lost about who they are and how to deal with the current pressures they face. Do we want to tell the next generation that treading on the dreams of others makes us winners?

A Tearful Brittney Griner Changes Tune About National Anthem

A few years back, WNBA and Olympic basketball star Brittney Griner wanted no part of our national anthem. She knelt instead of standing when it was played before her games. She said in 2020 the league shouldn’t even play it at all.

Then she spent a hellish 10 months in a Russian prison after being caught with drug paraphernalia, only getting released after a costly prisoner exchange.

The experience changed her attitude. Before the Paris Olympics, Griner said it now “means everything to me” to wear the red, white and blue.

And on Sunday, after the USA Women’s Basketball team won gold, tears streamed down her face as “The Star-Spangled Banner” played.

“This one meant a lot to me,” Griner told reporters after the game. “I mean, just having a chance to play for gold, represent my country, what my country did for me? Yeah, this is the highest on the pinnacle right here.”

She added that her time in a foreign prison gave her greater appreciation for the little things in life.

“Waking up, going to practice, even when you don’t want to practice, having the opportunity to do that, because we overlook it,” she said. “That’s the opportunity that we get to do and I just cherish every second I can now.”

A Campaign of “Joy”?

We’ve gotta hand it to the Harris campaign. They figured a way twist her odd, inappropriate laughing into a positive thing. Put the jolly Tim Walz on the presidential ticket, call theirs a campaign of “joy,” then make sure the media sycophants get the memo.

The other day, Walz told Kamala Harris, “Thank you for bringing back the joy.”

That works — if by “joy” you mean inflation, energy dependence, Middle Eastern terrorism, the Taliban and millions of illegal immigrants on our own shores. (Or perhaps he just meant, “The joy of not having Joe Biden weigh down the party anymore.”) Is it even true that Harris is joyful? Would you care to conduct a poll of her former staff to find out? They might have a different opinion.

Still, The Associated Press is playing along, comparing the “joy” of the Harris-Walz ticket to the “gloom” of Trump-Vance.

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Harris described the Democratic ticket as “Joyful Warriors.” Certainly, if you watch any of their joint appearances, they laugh and carry on like the hosts of a self-improvement seminar, not people who want to lead the U.S. while Iran and Israel teeter on the brink of all-out war.  

By the way, “joyful warriors” is an interesting word choice, given Walz’s charges of stolen valor.

The Problem for Harris: Is She Stuck With Walz?

Each day, the issues with Walz grow deeper. More videos and quotes keep coming, confirming both the accusations of stolen valor and that he abandoned his unit after learning they were headed to the Iraq war zone. As we mentioned the other day, when the chaplain of your unit is calling you “cowardly,” things ain’t looking good.

Tim Walz has not been formally nominated as the vice presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. Given the icy-cold way the people running the show discarded Joe Biden, despite his actually earning the nomination, don’t think they don’t have it in them to dispatch Walz before or after the upcoming Democratic National Convention if he grows more toxic this week.

But even if Walz voluntarily withdraws from the race, Harris will still have a massive problem. If Walz is dropped, that’s a confession that Harris blew her first real decision as a leader as the would-be president of the United States — an interception on her first pass. For three years, she has been accused of being incompetent and unprepared, and her choice of a running mate being kicked off the ticket would prove that.

Remember, it was the Harris campaign that put out a video where Walz claimed he’d been in war. Not the Trump campaign.

However, let’s assume for the sake of argument that the DNC power brokers decide to replace him. Would Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro accept the offer to join Harris on the ticket at this point? No way. He’s too smart and ambitious to board that train wreck. 

That means we’d be looking at even more chaos before and at the Democratic National Convention coming up in Chicago on Aug. 19. Right now, my money is on Harris hoping the media runs cover for her and Walz and this, too, will pass — though the odds of Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly ending up as her running mate are growing.

Trump Prepares for Musk Interveiw on X and to Sue DOJ Over Mar-a-Lago Raid

Tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern time, Donald Trump returns to X for a live interview with Elon Musk.

Until a couple of recent overnight posts, Trump had only been on X once since his ban on the platform was lifted in November 2022 when Musk took over. (That was to post his mug shot last August.)

Meanwhile, Trump is going to sue the U.S. Department of Justice for $100 million over the Mar-a-Lago raid, Fox News reported, with his lawyers arguing the raid was done with “clear intent to engage in political persecution.” The suit accuses the Biden administration of “torturous conduct” against his former rival.

 

On the Stream Menu

Welcome new contributor Leonydus Johnson to The Stream! He offers “Neighborly Socialism,” a critique of Tim Walz and the “weaponized empathy” tool in the progressive socialist toolbox.

Meanwhile, Jason Jones returns with “As the West Falls in Love With Tyranny and War, We Must Be the Last of the Real Liberals.”

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.

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