Sicknasty Marketing

Per another Bill Breen piece in this month's Fast Company ("Our Customers Can Sniff Through Any Kind of Hard Sell. And When They Do, They're Gone." ESPN Takes Retailing to the Extreme), ESPN has joined the ranks of Gonzo Marketers:

[T]he Disney Stores of the world are more about selling Winnie the Pooh underwear than about reaching customers in a genuinely new way. ESPN seems to understand that if it's not delivering a real, interactive experience -- if it's not sincere -- it will not succeed.