Stay Positive

Back in 2007 I was commissioned to make an anti-Yankees tee design for a Boston based website.  I instead offered to make a pro-Red Sox tribute design.  My reasoning: no one wants to be around someone who is negative. Which is why I’m always surprised when certain products enter the market.  Those negative shirts were designed, printed, and sold. The profit is made on advertising someone’s distaste, rather than their devotion. I don’t understand purpose of them.

I understand there is a market for these products, as any product.  But is that the angle you want to be known for?  The marketing concept is “buy from us, we hate the same stuff as you,” really?  That seems backwards.  The point of a branded business is to excite your customers into your product, but when your product is negative, you’re selling negativity.  I can’t imagine a business can, or should, last with that model.  While knowing Steve Jobs is an avid Beatles fan, has Apple ever released an iPod with ROLLING STONES SUCK engraved on it?  No. Because it’s bad business.