On a recent flight, I watched a couple episodes of the Showtime series The Kings, about the four boxers—Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, and Thomas Hearns—who brought excitement and energy to boxing in the 1980s.
Of those four fighters, Duran was my least favorite. Part of it was that I liked Leonard because he was from the D.C. area (I once opened the door for him while he was entering and I was leaving Bowl America. Cool story, huh?). And for the most part, liking Leonard necessitated disliking Duran.
But watching the series, there was one thing about Duran that I did like: his shorts.
When Duran fought Leonard in Montreal in 1980, both his robe and his shorts were adorned with the red Marlboro symbol with his name below it. And despite full knowledge of how bad cigarettes are and how manipulative Philip Morris behaved as a company, I couldn’t deny that Duran’s Marlboro red attire looked so damn cool.
Setting aside how crazy it is for a massive multinational corporation to allow its symbol to be locked up with something other than its wordmark (your friendly neighborhood brand cop reporting for duty!), seeing Duran on The Kings got me thinking about how good Marlboro’s branding used to be in the sports world.
On boxers like Duran and Formula 1 legends like James Hunt, Niki Lauda, and Michael Schumacher, Marlboro’s bold red and white color combination and the mountain/arrow symbol did an amazing job of conveying strength and toughness.
And yes, there’s a sense of machismo that comes through. This is both appealing because of its Thoreau-esque emphasis on rugged self-reliance and complicated because of its entanglement with a toxic masculinity that was very present though not acknowledged when Marlboro was slapping its logo on things.
With Marlboro’s ability to sponsor sports rightfully curtailed, it got me wondering if there was a company that currently tapped into the same spirit while marketing a less deadly product. Yeti probably comes closest. Maybe Patagonia. Although neither really have huge penetration in mainstream sports the way Marlboro did.
Regardless, when I’m watching some 30-For-30 like doc in 20 years about athletes today, I wonder who or what I will trigger that “so damn cool” response the way Duran did.
Dirt: Bored Ape Universe
Really enjoyed this piece from Dirt’s Kyle Chayka about the release of the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Apecoin. While so much of the conversation around crypto and NFTs can be binary (It’s either the greatest thing ever or the worst thing ever), this presents a more nuanced view that voices the things are not said in so much of the marketing speak.
—Justin
Running the Light – Sam Tallent
Perhaps at this point, it’s getting lazy, but here is another recent email exchange of mine. This time with the author of a book I recently read for my book club. The book is dark and hilarious and unlike anything else you’ve read before.
—Andrew
Topical Dancer – Charlotte Adigéry / Bolis Pupul
The first quarter of this year’s music releases has been incredibly strong for one genre in particular: indie. This is not an indie album, but it is my favorite album of the year so far. It has a little something for everyone – the sound appeal of today’s pop hits, while being experimental enough to not feel like you’re listening to something that was created by an algorithm.
—Andrew