On Jan. 3, hours after the U.S. captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, a photograph circulated showing Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima wearing a Nike tracksuit. This image moved quickly across global media and was shared, commented on, memed, and folded into the familiar rhythms of contemporary visual culture. 

What drew immediate attention was not only the informality of Maduro’s clothing, but the presence of a globally recognizable brand in a moment typically governed by the visual codes of state power. Athleisure replaced uniform; a logo supplanted insignia. Interpretation was structured less by the language of politics than by that of the marketplace.

The image mattered not because it diminished power, but because it reframed it. A moment of political consequence was filtered through the visual language of branding—familiar, legible, and emotionally neutral—reshaping how the event was absorbed and understood.

In an era when logos often outlast leaders, this reframing feels less anomalous than revealing. The Nike swoosh did not register as a crisis for........

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