Photo: Brian Shoemaker Twitter (@brian_shoemaker)

Adidas Trolls Cubs with Brilliant Bryant Billboard

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanApril 4, 2015

All day I dream about…Kris. That’s pretty much how Cubs fans, and maybe a good portion of baseball fans as well, have felt for the last several weeks. Adidas knows that and they’re more than willing to let everyone know they know. And now we know that they know that we know that they know. Wait, what?

It was only two weeks ago, in discussing Kris Bryant’s potential impact — or lack thereof — over the first two weeks of the season, that I wrote, “Soon enough, he’ll grace billboards across Chicago, but for now he’s become the poster boy for MLB’s service time guidelines.”

I guess the folks at Adidas are loyal Cubs Insider readers. If not, they should be. Either way, I have no doubt that what they are is shrewd, not to mention possessed of great sense of humor, as this metaphorical middle sits on Addison St and points right at Wrigley’s marquee (not to be confused with Jason Marquis, who is now in Cincinnati).

Oh, how I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the meeting in which this idea was approved and implemented. I can just imagine it now: Ad Exec #1: “Let’s put Kris Bryant on a billboard in Wrigleyville…before he’s been called up!” Ad Exec #2: “Hmmm. Is this a noodle?” Ad Exec #3: “Hell nah, son!” That’s how those marketing guys talk, I’m sure. While this is the most public of the apparel company’s jabs at the Cubs, it’s certainly not the first time Adidas has leveraged Kris Bryant’s situation to their advantage.

Somewhere, Don Draper is sipping an Old Fashioned and having himself a little chuckle. I must say, however, that Adidas does seem to be running the risk of overexposure when it comes to their Bryant tweets. The future Cubs is featured in six in a row and eight of ten posts on the @adidasBaseball timeline.

Then again, you need only refer to my opening line to see that more Kris Bryant is always a good thing, particularly when your brand has neither the edge nor sex appeal of Nike or Under Armour. But, Adidas, if I could make one suggestion: perhaps a better, even more trollerific, phrase for the ad would have been “Why wait?” Just thinking out loud here.

No word yet on whether the Cubs plan to erect signage in front of the ballpark to block views of the billboard, but they’ve still got more than a day before fans and national media descend upon Wrigley Field.

Your move, Crane.

 

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanApril 4, 2015
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