Interesting piece in New York magazine (online at Vulture) about the Brooklyn crash pad for indie musicians being sponsored by Sour Patch Kids candy. In what their ad agency insists on calling “experiential marketing” certain “emerging artists” are invited to stay at The Patch for free with one condition: all digital content uploaded while in residence should employ the hashtag #BrooklynPatch.
Accusations of selling out, and the inauthentic nature of the enterprise, came quickly (Gawker). The New York article notes that this four-bedroom, three-story house with its recording studio, camera crew, fireplace, giant all-glass shower room, and concierge, is “not exactly the Chelsea Hotel in 1974.” (Sorry Mr. Bukowski, it’s after 11pm. Miss Spungen has been complaining about the noise.)
I would also question whether a band that has sold out six consecutive nights at the Brooklyn Bowl is still “emerging.” Can’t they at least give this opportunity to someone a little further down the food chain — say, a musician who doesn’t already have an apartment in Manhattan.
There are no free lunches of course. The price for accepting these accommodations is having to nod and smile when some marketing tool says something like, “When artists come here, they’re eating Sour Patch Kids, they’re talking about Sour Patch Kids,” says Farrah Bezner, a marketing director at Mondelez. Her goal, she says, is for Sour Patch Kids to become “a part of conversations in culture.”
And that Johnny Cash throw pillow has got to go!