My Dad Hates Your Ad: NIKE Sneaker Release

Unruly crowds.

Riots in the street.

Shots fired.

Scores of people injured.

The Arab Spring? Not quite! Just more "Revolutionary" marketing from Nike!

Nike released their new Limited Edition Galaxy shoes with their usual
thoughtfulness toward the consumer: Midnight sales at the mall after a
social media firestorm. Riot Police used tear gas and Tasers to quell the
crowds in Orlando Florida. Classic new wave marketing: Convince the
consumer that shoes are vital to social survival and they will risk physical
survival. Damn the Mall Cops!

Marketing or exploitation? Nike has every right to create and bate fever in
promotion of its products. But does it NEED to? Did Nike's survival depend
on a limited supply of $250 sneakers or did its target audience get played
and played again? For Phil Knight, it's worth risking someone else's injury
or loss of life for brand promotion. Since this occurred last December in
Seattle as well, Nike can neither feign surprise nor hide arrogance.

So why not fire up those Chinese factories, and produce enough shoes for all
the flock? Ironically, as cutting edge as Nike claims to be, they might as
well call their product "The I-Shoe". Yet shoes don't have the production
limits of electronics. So why make them so rare that some lucky kid will
get shoe- jacked walking on air home from school? But then for Nike, any
press is good press.

Love,
Dad

My Dad Hates Your Ad is a series of articles by one of the dads of a Dallas Egotist contributor. "Dad" is in no way affiliated with the advertising industry, other then constantly being bombarded by it on a daily basis. So, before this tech-savvy parent learns to hack our site, we have decided to post his take on advertising from the perspective of a consumer.