18
May
2009
Blogger used by Nike to pimp new shoes
This video has been making the rounds for the last few days, and I can’t believe how disappointed I am in our fellow bloggers that everyone seems to be buying into the fact that this is an un-staged, spontaneous moment.
This blogger challenges Larry Fitzgerald to a footrace, and shockingly loses twice. In the second race, he gives up his Nike Trainer1 shoes (“which aren’t even out in stores yet!”):
In his original post, blogger Dewey Hammond claims that “the Nike folks in attendance tried to put a stop to it” … which must have been what they were doing when they set up all those Nike TR1 banners along the race course. Please.
Obviously, this is a viral marketing ploy by the folks from Beaverton, and a pretty great one at that. They got all of us sucker bloggers to post this video all over the web, getting all sorts of free subtle publicity for their newest shoe. Pretty sneak, sis.
[...] Blogger used by Nike to pimp new shoes | read and react [...]
Those banners were there for an event with local college kids at UC-Irvine. They definitely had nothing to do with me racing Larry. It was an afterthought at the event, and it happened only because I was talking smack all day with Larry, and it wouldn’t have happened had Larry not pulled rank and basically said he appreciated Nike’s concern, but he was racing, because “that’s what I do, and I’ll race all day long.” I appreciate your cynicism, though. I’m sure I would have thought the same thing had I not been there, but it was an “un-staged, spontaneous moment,” and maybe the reason many bloggers aren’t questioning that fact is because there were 30 other bloggers/reporters present for the race, and if you still don’t believe me that it was spontaneous? Well, I don’t really give a fuck one way or the other. Later.
Hey Dewey – I appreciate you stopping by to tell your side of the story. You’re right, I suppose the cynicism is built-in at this point, especially when it comes to behemoth corporations like Nike. What was the initial event you were all there to cover about, anyway?
If you genuinely managed to egg Larry Fitzgerald into a spontaneous footrace … well done, sir. Congratulations on getting some awesome original content. And I apologize for questioning your integrity, but I felt at least some skepticism needed to be injected into the conversation. If I’m wrong about something, I’ll happily admit it.
Either way, you’re doing something right, since so many people are talking about your post, right?
Again, thanks for taking the time to respond. Respect.
[...] Dewey Hammond was kind enough to stop by ReadAndReact to respond to our post from last week – Blogger Used by Nike to Pimp New Shoes, where we called into question the credibility of his “un-staged, spontaneous” footrace [...]