Went down to the Nasdaq open tonight and saw Roger Federer play. I don’t find tennis all that engaging, so my mind wandered a bit during the match and I found myself stricken by the sheer volume of advertising that permeates the event. The players lobbed the ball over a Microsoft net as the overhead scoreboard peddled the official olive oil of the Nasdaq 100 (olive oil!). Roger was looking very athletic in a Nike shirt, Nike shorts, Nike shoes and eyebrows shaved in the form of the Nike check.
As testament to the sick world we live in, I found myself wondering why advertisers hadn’t monetized the most conspicuous part of the event: the grunts the players make when they swing their rackets. Instead of “unh!”, why isn’t Roger grunting “Nike!” or “Justdoit!”?
That’s our next SpreadFirefox project: pooling our money to buy Roger Federer “Firefox!” grunts for a year.
Update: Responding to complaints that “Firefox” is too many syllables for one grunt, Lauren Holst suggests that we sponsor both players, one to grunt “fire” and one to grunt “fox”. While I agree that it would be fun to see that kind of interplay (perhaps between Venus and Serena?), sponsoring two players might be too rich for our blood.
March 29th, 2005 at 2:57 am
Since a grunt is often too short to incorporate ‘Firefox’ or, in fact, anything more than one syllable, the best thing would probably be to get who-ever to alternate grunting ‘Fire’ and ‘Fox’. Couldn’t we set up a donation thing similar to what was done for the NYT ad?
March 29th, 2005 at 11:09 am
Hahaha… No, don’t let one person alternate, sponsor both players! Then you would hear ‘fire’ and ‘fox’ going to and fro ^_^, that would be quite humorous.
~Grauw
March 29th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
As much as this idea seems like a great one, a question arises (for me, anyway): couldn’t this be tied back in with the previous post? If a TV viewer tuned in at the wrong time, wouldn’t they possibly hear “FOX” and then “FIRE?” Maybe if the FireFox logo was also displayed somewhere, the effect would be more productive?
March 29th, 2005 at 10:55 pm
I think you should get out of the tennis world and follow the marketing geniuses at McDonald’s. Hire Jay-Z to say “Firefox” up in his next futuristic flow. And get 50 Cent to talk about Firefox next time he’s in the club.
April 4th, 2005 at 4:33 am
Forget money. Just find the Pro-Tennis playin’ Firefox lovers…
April 6th, 2005 at 1:13 pm
Blake, are you dead?
May 1st, 2005 at 3:33 pm
How about rather than yelling “aaaaaaah” when wrestling, yell “FireFox” (when in a submission)