Do you HATE running? Really??

Ruminations on polemic marketing, why more people aren't watching a 20hr race, my love of running stores, my favorite running book of 2023, and a haiku.

Thoughts on love/hate relationships

Nike’s marketing this summer has caused some upset. Powerful sloganeering, of course, isn’t anything new to everyone familiar with the brand. (Literally everyone.)

I say the following from the point of view of a professional journalist and copywriter who thinks about words most of the time that I’m awake (and often while I’m asleep as well).

Nike and Strava’s love/hate material.

As such, it was interesting to see Strava joining in last week with a similar message in a similar color scheme (yes, they were orange first). The concern was that this messaging goes against the gentler, more inclusive messaging that most competitors used.

This kind of binary, polemic marketing is intended to forcefully polarize a conversation in order to cause shock, and then conversation around a brand. Here we are. You see? But just like my favorite jokes are based on a ridiculous element of truth, my favorite slogans have an exaggerated view on reality.

Here’s my hot take: yo…