Breakthrough or Intrusive? An Analysis of the Donald Glover AirDrop
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Donald Glover’s first ad for his Adidas sneakers was as cool as literally everything else Donald Glover has done.
But it was surprising, really freaking cool, and intrusive.
Catch up: 2019 Coachella-concert goers were pinged with an AirDrop photo request from the popular musician/actor/producer Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino, during the festival. Users who accepted the request then received a coupon for a free pair of Glover’s take on Adidas’ Nizza line of sneakers.
For those who don’t know what AirDrop is, here’s why this ad was so intriguing. AirDrop is Apple’s wireless device-to-device file sharing tool, with which you can share photos, files, website links and pretty much everything else you’d normally send in an email or text. It’s become a way for friends and family to quickly share a batch of selfies and occasionally memes to strangers at concerts.
But when the few lucky people at Coachella were pinged not with a meme, but with an offer for free shoes, it begged the question — is this casual form of advertising a breakthrough or too intrusive?
I’d personally like to know whether it was Glover, Adidas’ agency, or a tech-savvy Gen-Z intern at Adidas who came up with this…
