Interacting With Brands Part I – The High Life
This is the first installment in an ongoing look at talking to, using the products of, and general embracing of brands.
Its finally here. And I have it on. It wears like a brand new, 60 – thread count dishrag, but it was free, and it proudly trumpets my affiliation. I am wearing my Miller High Life ¾ sleeve t-shirt.
It was quite a trek to get here; about fourteen months and 510 beers. Roughly every 0.67 months, I would buy a 30 pk of Miller High Life. When it was gone, I would rip apart the cardboard, and diligently enter the code at www.millerhighlife.com.
One year and half a summer later, I show my love for my favorite beer.
…well so what? So you got a free shirt? Big deal.
That response would be fair. But this is more of a discussion of what we will do for a brand than a discussion of freebies and fashion.
There are very few brands that I will evangelize. There are even fewer that I will wear. I like Ford trucks, but believe myself to be far too cosmopolitan to be wearing a Built Ford Tough hat around (I keed – I live in ‘Stallis). The Adobe Creative Suite is only second to my toothbrush in hierarchy of importance; still it’s another item I won’t have on the back of my Member’s Only jacket any time soon.
But I identify with High Life. It tastes good and is affordable. A Good Honest Beer, At A Tasty Price. Its something that I enjoy, and don’t have to wait, or save up, to have. And because value is an ideal I hold in high regard, I am proud to talk about it, and show the world that I know a good deal, and a good beer. So much so, that I
- Bought 17 30pks of beer
- Bought very little other brands of beer
- Took the time to rip out the promo code and enter it online, 17 times
So yeah, I guess I’m livin the High Life. The Champagne of Beers was worth it to me, to interact beyond just buying it and drinking it. I followed a lengthy process of sticking with a regimen of beer, entering data for a questionable quality shirt, so I could show everyone that I like this lager.
How do you embrace your brands? What ones are important to you?
…what are you wearing right now?
August 7th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I myself was once a Marlboro man. I would smoke carton after carton of reds and at the end of each pack, would rip the side of the box off with those 5 Marlboro Miles on it, and through it in the file cabinet (ok…it was my top dresser drawer).
Back then though, it took so much longer to get everything. With the internet in its infancy, there was no way to enter codes to receive product faster. So I had to stuff envelopes full of card stock Miles and stick it the mailbox. Then came to 3 – 6 months for processing and shipping.
In the end it was worth it to see all that hard work pay off…that gorgeous red Marlboro cap and keychain that I religiously saved 250,000 Miles for. Though in hindsight, maybe I should have saved those for the pool table.
August 7th, 2009 at 11:22 am
When we received our KoolAid® Pitcher and Cup set in the fall of ‘77, I felt as accomplished as any 12-year old. We had to save and send in empty packets of mix to attain the plastic prize. Brands and their rewards seemed much more significant back then (not to mention more work required to get the goods).
I would love to know how many other folks out there did the same as you to get the t-shirt. The fracturing of brand identities today make the work level you endured disproportionate. So, indeed, you deserve the High Life and all the accouterments therein.
I like the cut of your jib.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Great stories!
Muchos Nachos for sharing.
August 17th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I’ll give you a Beck’s shirt if you want…but you have to pledge your allegiance to Beck’s!
August 20th, 2009 at 9:12 am
In addition to Miller, my husband is a huge fan of Dr. Pepper. He’s collected many of the bottle caps and begs me to enter the codes online (he’s not a computer guy). Unfortunately, their web site is a little more buggy and while I enjoy a Dr. Pepper now and then, I’m not a huge, passionate fan. So, I’ve managed to enter enough codes to win his Dr. Pepper hat. I’ve told him he’s on his own to enter his future codes. Now if it was for a Coach purse or something, I’d be all over that!
August 27th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
When I was eight I had my mom by (6) specially marked boxes of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes so that I could get a Tony the Tiger baseball. It took me about a month and a half to plow through the Frosted Flakes. About a month to get my baseball…that was a good day.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:45 am
maybe it is because i am hyper aware of brands in my life, i choose not to advertise on my body for it is my belief that one should be paid to advertise a product. But you bring up a good point: when it comes to brand loyalty, rationale thought tends to be bypassed for the feeling of inclusion that one gets with certain brands. i have my favorites but i like to twist them, for example: i’ve silkscreened my own tweaked versions of the Suzuki logo that read ‘Satori’ – made it my own. Copyright infringement is your best entertainment value!
my ex-wife and i have 2 kids who are just coming of the age to start asking for cell phones. Not too long ago she would send my son to me wearing a Culver’s T shirt, and a cap with HUMMER embroidered in seemingly 250 pt type. i still shudder to think. Suffice it to say, he is now logo free. At least on my watch.
to answer your questions, given the choice (read: given a shirt) i would proudly wear Apple, Guinness, Triumph, maybe the Rolling Stones tongue. Currently, its just easier to wear black.
March 5th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Wow… this is really cool… good thing I didn’t see this before I hired you. Are you a celeb now? Next time try smiling in your picture… you look toooooo serious!