Caitlin Clark turned down a $400 million endorsement cope with Nike due to their partnership with Nike.
In mid-June 2024, posts on Facebook, amongst different locations, claimed that WNBA star Caitlin Clark had turned down a $400 million endorsement deal from Nike due to its partnership with former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick. The story seems to have originated on the web site esspots.com, which wrote:
In a shocking and extremely controversial transfer, rising basketball star Caitlin Clark has turned down a profitable $400 million endorsement cope with sports activities large Nike. The choice has sparked widespread debate, significantly due to Clark’s blunt and pointed cause for rejecting the supply: her disapproval of Nike’s ongoing partnership with Colin Kaepernick, whom she known as “that Kaepernick clown.”
Nonetheless, this declare was not true. Esspots is a satirical web site with a disclaimer explicitly stating that its tales are false:
Earlier than you proceed to learn our content material, we want to emphasize that nothing on this web site is actual. The entire articles, tales, and commentary discovered on Esspots.com are solely fictitious and created for the aim of leisure solely.
Among the social media pages sharing the declare — like SpaceX Fanclub on Fb — additionally carry the same disclaimer. “Nothing on this web page is actual,” that web page’s description states.
In actuality, Clark already beforehand had an endorsement deal with Nike starting in 2022 as a university athlete, and Kaepernick has been related to Nike since 2018. On the time of this reporting, Clark is in negotiations for a brand new Nike contract as knowledgeable athlete. In April, a number of retailers reported that she was on observe to signal an eight-year, $28 million contract with Nike. Clark and Kaepernick are common targets of satire pages like essports.com whose content material is usually confused with actual information.
As a result of the declare that Caitlin Clark turned down a $400 million endorsement cope with Nike on account of Kaepernick stems from a web site whose output is explicitly described as satirical in nature, this declare is rated “Labeled Satire.”
For background, here is why we typically write about satire/humor.
Sources
“Caitlin Clark Is Set to Signal a New Nike Deal Valued at $28 Million over 8 Years, Reviews Say.” AP Information, 23 Apr. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/caitlin-clark-nike-3ea6a96e0b830b66b4680cc5318de9e4.
“Disclaimer.” Esspots, https://esspots.com/disclaimer/. Accessed 24 June 2024.
Robin, Alex. “Breaking: Caitlin Clark Rejects $400 Million Deal From Nike, ‘Not With That Kaepernick Clown.'” Esspots, 18 June 2024, https://esspots.com/breaking-caitlin-clark-rejects-400-million-deal-from-nike-not-with-that-kaepernick-clown/.
