Tie In Marketing

Because, occasionally, accusations fly when drinks are involved, but the other person won’t let you defend yourself… this one’s for you, John. (But don’t read it like a letter to you personally. I’m using the general “you.”)

Previously, I have talked about the fact that I hate geek snobbery. And really, I do. You like what you like, and that’s great. I like what I like, and that’s great too.

But tie-in marketing bugs the crap out of me.

I understand why it’s there. I understand that other people like it. I’m not going to sit here and tell you you can’t like it.

For the most part, my personal loathing of tie-in marketing is limited to consumables. Things with the appropriate pictures slapped on their labels to drive sales…. Labels that are going to be thrown away shortly after purchase. Guardians of the Galaxy Doritos, Game of Thrones beer, and Superman Pepsi are all things that I don’t see a point to.

But my low opinion of those products and their marketing shenanigans doesn’t fall on the people who buy them. For one thing, there is every possibility you just wanted a 12pk of Pepsi and there was no other option. But even if you bought that bag of chips because  you think Gamora is the hottest green lady since Star Trek TOS, that's cool (you wouldn’t be wrong). You do you.

My annoyance is with the marketing departments.

I get it. Everything is about making money. Tie-in products trigger a switch in fan-brains because we love this thing, we think favorably toward things that our brains connect with this thing we love. And this leads to more sales.  

When I was a kid, it didn’t bother me. I LOVED me those Shasta Mario sodas (Yoshi Green Apple was the best). I honestly don’t remember when it started to bug me, but it’s the nonsensical connections that make my head tilt at an impossible angle.

This all came up because of baseball.

I love baseball. It’s pretty much the only sport I watch. But when the TV at our favorite neighborhood bar popped up an announcement that the first however-many fans to a future Diamondbacks game would get a white walker-ified bobblehead of Taijuan Walker, I groaned a little too loudly and commented on the ridiculousness of this. This was the same week I caught sight of Diamondbacks branded wine--of all things--in the grocery store, I couldn’t stop myself from losing a little bit more faith in humanity.

So, John, if disliking a product-based marketing scheme is snobbery, then I guess I’m a snob.