Are we Being Punked?

Who orchestrates a very public marketing activation which was meant to evoke strong emotions and then sit in the social media comments to explain and defend themselves?

I continue to be puzzled by the actions of the folks behind Satisfy. If you want to be bold and let your freak flag fly… or bang a giant gong in the suburban desert, be my guest. But then why are you personally all over social media trying to defend and explain yourself? If you want to make art, make art. If you want to sell products, sell them and prove the naysayers with your success. But don’t try to be edgy and then act thirsty when folks misunderstand you.

But maybe that’s part of the performance act. When Satisfy dreamed up the by now infamous “Circle Pit^TM” they knew (must have known, please tell me they knew) that it would create a strong reaction online. By now they know that Satisfy isn’t just universally admired and adored anymore. By now they must know that Satisfy is increasingly the butt of a joke.

I wonder if they are now just feeding the beast? Purposely trolling back to create hype. (I personally couldn’t handle the time arguing and defending myself, but some might thrive on this.) How much of their activation in the desert hyping their collab with adidas was framed so that the meme accounts would pick it up and drive the message further than they could’ve done themselves? I am not here to condone this. I am not trying to write a LinkedIn marketing genius post extolling the attention economy at all costs. I am just wondering out loud here. It’s day 4? of nonstop hot takes and think pieces and questions and comments online. Usually when something like this happens it’s serious, political, big. But this was just a wee marketing activation by a fashion brand cosplaying as athletic brand. No one got hurt, no one got harmed in the making of it, no one needs to get cancelled. This IS all fun and games – so far.