Real men wear pink ... cleats.
Here is a cool story on the origins of the idea of allowing NFL players to wear pink cleats as part of the NFL's over-all breast cancer awareness effort for the month of October. Props to DeAngelo Williams for the suggestion - and to the NFL for lightening up a bit. In addition to cleats, some of the players wore pink gloves and sweat bands, plus the goal post padding was pink, the coaches wore hats with pink brims, and the NFL modified their logo with a pink ribbon.
Of course, this is a great cause, but is also a case study that branding really isn't that difficult. It typically requires simple, sincere efforts to communicate a story - which is exactly what the pink cleats accomplished. Any brand can do stuff like this. The problem is that most branding efforts have to support business models (both agencies and internal marketing departments) that require media buys, complex plans, focus groups and a bunch of political bullcrap.
In short, nobody gets paid to keep things simple.
Posted 1 month ago
by Justin Foster
