This title is confrontational, partially because I’m formating my book and I have pages that have pictures that have to be adjusted and my cover needs to be trimmed which means that I have to find just the right size before I save it and upload it so that the cover will be approved which still doesn’t mean that it will be approved… in short I took a break and because I’m irritable New Balance bears the brunt of my frustration. Take a look at this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCSrAamqpEA
First, It’s dope. I love the concept:
“Through this high-energy music video… we hope to tap into an inner drive and momentum of women,” says Allie Tsavdarides, New Balance Director of Global Marketing.Featured in the video are four New Balance female runners, Lisanne de Witte (sprinter, Netherlands), Stephanie Garcia (steeplechase, US), Cory McGee (middle distance, US) and Bev Ramos (middle/long distance, Puerto Rico).The anthem video features a song from BEGINNERS x Night Panda called “Start a Riot” that drops… in conjunction with the music video. BEGINNERS is led by bassist and lead singer Samantha Barbera.The video is directed by Lauren Sick and produced by Tessa Films.
Second, in my upcoming book (the one that currently has me super frustrated), I discuss that footwear companies have been forced to become media companies. It seems that on a daily basis everything I’ve written in the book is coming to fruition. New Balance has made a strong play with this and it’s comparable to adidas’ rise when they were hitting on all cylinders in marketing:
In 2016 adidas launched a campaign that was led by a song created specifically for ad. It was amazing.
Third, in the most gangsta voice I can deliver, “Where the sistas at?” Yep, I used slang/ebonics, ghetto semantics, non-standard English; whatever you want to call it… the question remains, “Where is the diversity in the delivery of this concept?”
Unless New Balance is making this a weekly series and the next video will feature an Asian band, and then a Black band, and then the videos will represent each culture, okay… that’s a little extreme. I’m making a point. I didn’t watch this video to find a problem. I wanted to write something to take my mind off of the formatting of my book so I did a search for newinformation from the brands. When I saw an all woman led campaign I had to share it. My excitement faded as I saw woman after woman and I kept waiting for a different build, a different look, someone who looks like my daughter or wife and what I got was one minute and 51 seconds of “not my wife.”
This campaign almost nails the use of media in creating narrative, but if a Black girl or woman watches this I have to assume they will feel left out. Think about this, New Balance signed Coco Gauff, Gabby Thomas and Sydney McLaughlin in the last few months, all Black and that’s a good thing. New Balance also sided with Trump because of TPP and they’ve hosted the Republican party at their facilities for speeches; not a good thing in a time where the Republican party is promoting divisiveness and indifference. As progressive as New Balance is trying to become in signing athletes, they are doing what many sportswear companies have done in advertising, missed Black women and women of different shapes.
I may be a little irritable, but I don’t think I’m wrong on this one.
