One of the weirdest examples of branding I’ve seen in a long time is Microsoft’s new ‘hip’ clothing line, Softwear. They’ve teamed up with rapper Common, my old idol who has sold out more times than Ice T, and it’s just very odd. Common comments: “Whatever I associate myself with, I feel like it has to be something that’s along the lines that I think is fresh.” Common thinks that it looks futuristic (using computer graphics) and that it has something new to it. He’s probably alone about that.
What were they thinking? I hope this is not from CP+B, but from some local marketing department of Microsoft who thought that “this is going to get us in touch with the youngsters, a 45 year old rapper who never sold platinum and a T- shirt line built on a pun.”