Advertising Anarchy

Thursday Afternoon: Swag Stats

Skateboards: 1
T-shirts: 6 – three unwearable large men’s shirts, three small and cute women’s shirts
Bags: 3
CDs: 6
Necklaces: 1
Stuffed animals: 1
Books: 2
Monitor Headphones: 1

The Alternative Press party at Speakeasy’s Terrace 59 turned out to the be the swag bag of the festival so far.

You know it’s going be good when the ads for the event say “open bar, free food, swag bag.” Walking down the street holding a skateboard (no wheels) and carrying a nice zip-top bag stuffed with crazy things garnered us a lot of attention. As far as branding goes, the Skelanimals brand put tons of good stuff in there, including the skateboard, which made me want to visit online and check them out. I’m not into the company’s products, but because they put so much good, unique stuff in an already good swag bag, I like the company.Next stop was the Filter Magazine party at Cedar Street, because my friend said they had cute shirts last year.Co-sponsored by American Rag, they had cute shirts this year too. Then we hit up The Great ’08 Tailgate at Cedar Door, where we got a bag filled with good stuff. I really liked the logo for the event, and they did a good job of using it on everything—even the cups for drinks! Finally someone wised up to branding the actual vessel out of which you drink!

At the tables, there were just piles and piles of cards advertising CD releases, parties, music companies, etc.

My first reaction was, “this is stupid! That’s horrible branding.” But then I realized that I sat down at the table and flipped through every single one of those cards—and then decided that they were stupid and horribly branded.

Fader Fort Report: Still lines around the corner. We’re never getting in.