The end of mass marketing
For years, I’ve been writing about the increasing ineffectiveness of interruption media and the death of the TV Industrial complex.
Today’s news, however is the final nail in that coffin.
Faced with consumer ennui and apathy, Nike has decided to engage in a desperate effort to regain mindshare. By making a 7 figure “donation” to the JPL, they’ve bought the rights to the new planet Sedna.
Sedna, as you may remember, is the new planet past Pluto (which used to be a planet but isn’t a planet anymore.) Anyway, researchers chose the name because Sedna was an Inuit goddess who lived under the ocean (get it… cold and far away?). Nike, pointing out that while Sedna sounds like a brand name, Nike is actually the name of a Greek Goddess.
Hence the swap. I didn’t realize that the JPL was in a position to sell off the names of the planets, so expect some controversy over the proceeds. Either way, it’s sure to keep Nike in the news for months.
I think this is astonishingly stupid and arrogant. The backlash is just beginning.
What will they do next, project PowerPoint presentations on the moon?
Have a nice April.