Bonded by Blood

Okay I'm gonna tell you a story. Stop me when you think something's a little off...

So Adidas makes a promotional poster every year for the popular All Blacks Rugby team in New Zealand. The posters are usually given to customers who buy a $70 team jersey made by Adidas. This year they mixed blood from the team's players into the ink of posters.

STOP.

Okay, that was the weird part. Blood was taken from every member of the national team and mixed in with the ink to make 8,000 posters that each come with a certificate of authenticity. Here's another weird thing: this did not weird people out! Maybe it's the American way to be squemish about blood being on a poster, but I think that if something like this was tried in the United States it would not go over well. I see mothers protesting about the campaign being a bad influence on their children or promoting violence. But for the target audience of die hard Rugby fans, the "Bonded by Blood" campaign works.

Over 95,000 hits have been generated at the campaign's site since it began in July where fans can watch the players donate blood for the ink. Way to push the envelope, Adidas. And although last year's poster showed team members wrestling lions, for some reason I think you've outdone yourself. Well done.

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