HOKA's "Far Out" shows their Mafate X shoe running in remote South Africa
Apparel brand HOKA's new campaign “Far Out,” features the new trail running shoe Mafate X in the untamed
After all of the controversy preemptive lawsuits non-apology apologies and general douchebaggery GoldieBlox wins a spot in the 2014 Super Bowl.
The special fan-voting portion of Intuit's Small Business Big Game contest put GoldieBlox ahead of three other top contenders, Barley Labs, which makes dog treats out of barley, the Locally Laid Egg Co., egg producer and the funnest brand name of all POOP - Natural Dairy Compost, fertilizer maker.
Not to mention dozens of other small businesses with dreams of getting exposure on America's biggest stage. The only difference is, those other companies didn't make Adam Yauch turn over in his grave, God rest his soul.
Here's the interesting thing. Intuit's entire reason for doing this was to give a company in need a leg up, like Intuit does. They were searching for the right brands who best represented their own brand.
Apparently, this group of self-serving elitists were so enticing, Intuit was willing to overlook its own Terms of Service to put them in the top spot:
The Submission must not contain material that violates or infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to privacy, publicity or intellectual property rights, or that constitutes copyright infringement;
Entrant must have permission from all individuals mentioned or displayed in the Submission (if any) to use their name and likeness in the Submission and to grant the rights set forth herein and if requested, entrant must be able to provide such permissions in a form acceptable to Sponsor.
Stoner Bowl. Now people are even selling stoner Super Bowl merchandise to go along with it.
All in all, the campaign for Intuit has been successful. Intuit has taught us a lot about what it believes. For starters, Intuit believes if you control the narrative, break the law, and hire a team of lawyers favored by Google to preemptively sue an artist then your Kickstarter and VC funded "small business" will go very far. Intuit are also not brave enough to go with a controversial brand that is promoting a legal drug.
But if you are a non-profit, or a real small business owner, an architect developed construction toy, an organic foods maker, a sustainable farmer, and you follow the rules? Good luck with that.
Unfair indeed. But apparently, that's business.