Sports and milk, sports and milk, sports and milk

The sports culture is quickly becoming the adult male equivalent of Hello Kitty. Companies are using the sports culture as a brand. In the last few days I’ve noticed two new products that further this idea, ESPN Mobile and Sports Clips. Now I love sports, from curling to football, but here is the type of trend that usually ends in burnout, backlash and back stock. In the end the consumer usually is paying for a second rate product that they purchase more for the name or identity.

What’s the most omnipresent commercial on TV and radio today? I’d put my money on ESPN Mobile. Now maybe it’s the fact that I watch and listen to a lot of sports but I’m seeing this ad pop up all over the place. What’s ESPN Mobile? It’s a cell service that specializes in granting exclusive access to various sport centric tools. Now you can watch clips from games, view box scores, take part in polls and oh yeah, make and receive phone calls. I did a little digging on this and found ESPN Mobile is similar to companies like Virgin Mobile in that they’re piggy backing off other satellites. So in the end you’re paying a higher rate for phone service but you’re getting access to top notch sports information and an ESPN color coordinated phone. As a bonus you get sports cred from all your buddies. Can this type of product sustain? Is there a market? I’d say, no and sort of. This type of product is aimed at a very small niche, the sports fan that wants to scream sports no matter the cost or practicality. The truth is that you can get the same type of services from any web enabled phone and probably at a lower cost. When I look into the future I see warehouses full of ESPN phones stacked side by side with Boost! phones.

Now if you do run out and purchase the ESPN phone might I recommend using it to make an appointment at Sports Clips. That’s right it’s a sports themed hair salon. This was probably inevitable after we got the sports bar but it begs the question, what’s next? Maybe next year I can take my taxes into Bash Brothers Tax Accountants. Or perhaps the next time I travel I can use NASCAR rental cars. Or maybe I’ll spend a day with my special lady at the Sports Spa where I can have a pedicure while enjoying Pardon the Interruption and my lady can get a facial while watching figure skating. Yes folks we’re being branded and so our interests. Soul Plane might have been a fictional movie, and an awful one at that, but how far away are we from Sports Plane? I’m not sure about you but I still don’t trust Kareem Abdul Jabbar as my co-pilot.