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. With Just Do It (Yourself?)
Posted Under: Brand Underground,DIYism,Murketing,Subculture Inc.
I’m happy that the Beautiful Losers documentary is getting plenty of attention, and I look forward to seeing it. I’m a fan of many of the artists who I gather are in it, and I both like and respect Aaron Rose. He is interviewed in the current issue of Complex talking about a spinoff project: “Make Something!! Workshops,” and I like the sound of these, too. The film’s site says:
Working with public school art programs and youth mentoring programs, MAKE SOMETHING!! will invite local children to participate in creative workshops such as sign painting, photography, skateboard graphic design, toy design, filmmaking, tattoo art, footwear design and zine making.
Workshops will be hosted by renowned artists from the Beautiful Losers “do-it-yourself” art subculture, which include Ed Templeton, Tobin Yelland, Geoff McFetridge, Shepard Fairey, Mike Mills, Todd James, Cheryl Dunn, Kaws, Mr. Cartoon and Aaron Rose. The work created in each location will form a continually evolving exhibition, which will be open to the public to view.
Sounds good.
And yet … despite all my good vibes about this … I must say that my reaction to the version of the movie poster above was: What’s the swoosh doing on there?
These workshops, apparently, are courtesy of Nike. Was that really necessary? “Make something” is obviously a fine message — but to me the whole idea of doing-it-yourself kind of loses its oomph if the doing has to happen under the auspices of the almighty swoosh. After all, did the various artists and creators celebrated in the film have to rely on a multinational to learn to express themselves? I think not. On the film’s site, the tab for this project is simply “Nike Workshops.” Ew.
I think this a bad move on Nike’s part — if Swoosh Inc. wants to do something good for the kids, then just do it (to borrow a phrase) and for once keep your logo to yourself.
I also just think it’s, you know, a general all-around bummer.
Not that any of this will stop me from seeing the doc. In fact I wish I could make it to the U.S. premier, in New York City, tonight.
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Reader Comments
Nike is simply practicing its “authenticity by correlation” tool that it used successfully to build it’s Nike Skateboarding sub brand but this time the tool is being used for Nike Sportswear. Nike has replaced skaters in this authenticity equation with artists. It’s not about supporting youth creativity its about getting the Nike Sportswear logo on the same flyer with the names of “hip” artists like Thomas Campbell, Ed Templeton etc…
Rob,
Nike = The Borg. Just surrender and be assimilated already!
Hey Rob,
I do hope you get to see the film while it’s playing at the IFC Center- it’s a limited run so we have to send the film print to Los Angeles soon.
I won’t be able to talk for Nike, but I can talk for the producers of the film. We’re all independent documentary filmmakers, so when we make a film we are constantly looking at daunting obstacles to distributing the film. Talk to most indie filmmakers and many of them are not only struggling with how to make films outside the Hollywood system, but also get them out to an audience without going broke.
Sidetrack Films is self-releasing the film’s theatrical. The company itself is only a couple of people in a small office in Brooklyn, and the traditional prints and advertising costs are actually not something the company can really afford (look at the lack of a film ad in the New York Times film section for example.) So everyone involved with the film went grassroots and asked friends to help out. Which meant reaching out to to a network of creatives at blogs and magazines to check out the film and spread the word and brands to help with some costs. So one friend helped out with the cost of making buttons and stickers to hand out. Another friend helped with the cost making postcards and throwing a party.
NIke was one of the few to provide support. The filmmakers actually came up with the idea of the workshops. We felt it would be a great way to give back and provide a handful of kids access to the artists – we all feel it’s a good thing to spread that message of D.I.Y. creativity.
Sometimes, the world feels a bit too critical and full of too many obstacles, so the idea that you can be creative and figure out a way to make a living at it isn’t necessarily a part of everyone’s lives. Whether it’s making art or making documentary films, many of my own peers are still trying to figure out how to find a balance between being creative and dealing with the real world of paying the rent or your kid’s health insurance.
The image above is actually not a movie poster, but a digital flyer Sidetrack Films has been forwarding out. (To see the actual film poster – check out this post: http://www.core77.com/blog/events/beautiful_losers_screening_insert_pun_here_9357.asp)
We felt since Nike helped us with some costs (like blowing up a film print – which can cost north of $30,000) and getting behind these workshops, it would only be good courtesy to provide some kind of recognition on the digital flyer. We would’ve done the same kind of logo placement if Nike was a non-profit organization. In the end, there is no gaurantee that doing artist workshops with kids will help sell sneakers or help us market the film. But it’s a fun project with a good heart that we’ve all managed to put together in the spirit of the film’s release, and it’s pretty interesting we even got this to happen considering how money can be spent for so many other things.
The “Make Something” message came from us, the filmmakers. As did the “Make Something From Nothing” tagline for the movie poster – afterall, we spent 4 years making a documentary with the only resources we had so we felt it was appropriate not only in the spirit of the film’s story but also in the spirit of the story behind making this film (which obviously would never have been possible with a Hollywood studio.)
By the way, we welcome this kind of dialogue. As indie filmmakers, we have to figure out new approaches to making and getting films out to the public as the theatrical distribution world changes. And if you consider that other films have logos from big companies like Paramount, Sony, etc or their subsidiaries on their prints, advertising and posters – is there really a difference between us working with them or Nike? (I can explain further on what those would be from the indie filmmaker’s p.o.v.)
best regards.
I live in Georgia. I look forward to the DVD. Regards to Aaron. Cheers/ rw
Yeah, we’ll probably never make it to Georgia on the theatrical circuit.
I’d love to mail you a dvd. Can you email me your address?
That’s not necessary, thanks though.
ha! i wondered what you’d make of this. despite what Rich says, it’s not just a digital flyer but also a dead-tree flyer, which I picked up at a Williamsburg cafe last week. and yeah, i had exactly the same though as you. it’s not so much Nike helping the movie that bothers me (after all, Converse–i know! bad example for you!–did the same with Dogtown & Z-Boys, which i thought was still a good & legit movie in the end), as it’s Nike sponsoring the DIY workshops (i don’t know if that’s actually the case, but that’s the impression i got from looking at the back side of the flyer, not shown here but which has a list of workshops).
FWIW, i don’t think this is a “bad move on Nike’s part.” i think it’s a smart move on their part. what it is, is a bad move from Rob Walker’s standpoint. because it’s about the “pure” DIY ethos that you write about in the last part of the book getting subsumed in an “unpure” murketing campaign by your least favorite company. like the Reese’s commercial–“hey! you got your corporate monolith in my indie documentary!”
Before someone else says it: It was Vans that bankrolled dogtown doc. And they didn’t glom on at the end, they basically underwrote the whole thing. In a way, it was more legit, insofar as those kids actually wore vans, and in fact the dovetailing of vans and that subculture was basically real.
Nike’s involvement here is comparatively minor — they didn’t fund this doc. That’s actually why I think it would have been smarter for them to downplay their role in this workshops — which, again, sound like a good thing to me, overall. I’m not criticizing the filmmakers in any way, really. And I think it’s fine, in a way, for Nike to show up at the 11th and hour and say “Hey we support this kind of thing!” But they would have been smarter to keep their “support” quiet, in my opinion.
That aid, yes, it’s probably an idiosyncratic point of view on my part that I find it distasteful for Nike to show up and somehow vaguely imply that it had something to do with the creation of this film, or the success of the artists profiled in it. But at least one well-known figure on the sneaker scene sent me a private note ensuring me that Nike’s role here is benevolent, etc. So, okay, I’m a crank. Whatever.
I just think it’s a bummer that the kids participating in these workshops might, on any level at all, associate creativity with a major sneaker brand. And I think the good people of Nike ought to feel exactly the same way.
How are you going to hate on a name brand for being involved in a film that is about artists who used name brands as a medium for their art??? TOY MACHINE? OBEY? anybody?? its 2008 people. sneakers are art and art is sneakers. toys are art. SKATE DECKS are art. post modernism. and as far as the vans dogtown thing… are you telling me the graff artists featured in Beautiful Losers didnt rock nikes when they painted trains? please. nike is as much a part of graffitti (art) as crylon. KAWS is putting toys in museums, and kids arent paying attention to what you hippies are painting on your canvases, and thats what nike is trying to do with these workshops, teach kids about the far out technologies through which contemporary ART is being created.
i cant wait to see this film, but to be honest i probably would have never heard of it if it werent for nike. this is the first blog ive seen that has questioned and challenged nike’s involvement rather than championing it.
by the way please bring this film to the NORFOLK, VA area. theres lots of beautiful losers around these parts that rock nikes as they express themselves.
and if it doesnt make it to norfolk, rich i would LOVE a dvd.