Who do I sue?
As previously
mentioned,
occasionally some wacky marketing stunt I dreamed up for one of my novels
comes true. Films as advertisements, logo tattoos, naming people after
corporations;
no matter how outrageous I try to be, real-world marketers are
scampering along right behind.
But this is something else. First, a few lines from Chapter 1 of Jennifer Government:
The Johns smiled. “We started selling [Nike] Mercurys six months ago. You know how many pairs we’ve shifted since then?”
Hack shook his head. They cost thousands of dollars a pair, but that wouldn’t stop people from buying them. They were the hottest sneakers in the world. “A million?”
“Two hundred.”
“Two hundred million?”
“No. Two hundred pairs.”
“John here,” the other John said, “pioneered the concept of marketing by refusing to sell any products. It drives the market insane.”
This green thing is an invitation to the launch of a new range of Nike shoes that has gotten coolhunters drooling down their buttoned silk shirts. And what’s that down the bottom?
700 pairs worldwide, 140 in the US only
The next step, in Jennifer Government, is to throw open the warehouse doors and try to shift as many pairs as possible before the aura of exclusivity wears off. Also to shoot a few customers to make it look as if demand for the shoes is so hot that people are killing each other for them. If that turns out to be Nike’s plan in real life, too, I’m putting in a call for commission.
Comments
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Cogitation (#836)
Location: New York City
Quote: "Think about it for a moment."
Posted: 7453 days ago
Scott (#354)
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
Quote: "Max Barry tastes like awesome"
Posted: 7452 days ago
Jesus (#857)
Location: Spain
Quote: "Ask not what Max can do for you; ask what you can do for Max"
Posted: 7448 days ago
'The Vernon Hotel at which The Twelve True Fishermen held their annual dinners was an institution such as can only exist in an oligarchical society which has almost gone mad on good manners. It was that topsy-turvy product--an "exclusive" commercial enterprise. That is, it was a thing which paid not by attracting people, but actually by turning people away. In the heart of a plutocracy tradesmen become cunning enough to be more fastidious than their customers. They positively create difficulties so that their wealthy and weary clients may spend money and diplomacy in overcoming them.'
Robin Lane (#940)
Location: Porto Alegre, Brazil
Quote: "TANSTAFL"
Posted: 7421 days ago
The limiting of the supply of a good to drive up its desirability as both a marketing and market control strategy is a lot older than either Jennifer Government or G.K. Chesterton. It was certainly traditional by the 15th Century when it was used to both generate demand for and to increase the price of Papal indulgencies in the Roman Catholic church. (Jesus, given his nick, should have known this.)
Ainsley (#1052)
Location: Princeton, U.S.
Posted: 7387 days ago
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