Converse Sneakers & the Doors

I subscribe to something called the Lefsetz Letter - it is an email/blog by Bob Lefsetz. Wikipedia describes Bob as:

.... an American music industry figure and author of the email newsletter and blog, the Lefsetz Letter. Based in Santa Monica, California, Lefsetz worked previously as an entertainment businessattorney, majordomo of Sanctuary Music's American division and as a consultant to major record labels. Lefsetz deals with issues at the core of the music industry.

Themes explored in the Lefsetz Letter are:

• The diminishing role of the major record labels in current recorded music
• The decline of physical musical formats (primarily the decline of CD sales as alternate online music services such as iTunes continue to flourish)
• The prevalence of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing as the primary source of digital music distribution
• The need for a legitimate and licensed Peer-to-Peer or similar distribution service to facilitate the next working business model for the music industry
• Lefsetz's personal reflection on songs, songwriters, bands and industry insiders that have affected his unique and independent outlook of the music industry
• Lefsetz's personal life: his wife, kids, trips, vacations, youthful years driving across country, skiing, and so forth.

A recent posting from Bob was clear about one thing - he was pissed.  The Doors song "The End" was used in a Converse sneaker commercial.  Bob thought it wasn't right.  The manager for The Doors, Jeff Jampol, read Bob's posting and wrote a response which I found fascinating, educational, interesting and relevant.

Please note: Bob tends to swear a lot in his postings, so if you are offended by profanity, best not to read it. Else the Lefsetz Letter is definitely worth subscribing to. I leave your thoughts on the whole Doors/Converse matter to you, but do come back and post your comments here.

Comments

[anthony whitehead]

dont leave us here (help us) let me taste the rainbow itunes

[James Destevens]

Jeff Jampol really needs to check out and study Rappele, and his theories about whether the marketing message is what he calls On-Code or Off-Code (There was a PBS thing on his theories as well).
The point is that when you go Off-Code, you can create unnecessary negative emotional reactions, that can resonate in ways that cost you significant agony and $$$. Which is not definitely not the desired effect.
The other thing is that this reaction is really telling you something very important about your brand and how it functions. So it would be very valuable for you to decrypt it's meaning, so that the marketing enhances the long term value rather than depleting it, as appears to be happening.

[wild d]

Briliant!

Bob, I am sure Jimmy could hear you! Cause he was against putting music to the next VW beattle they were selling back in the sixties...
Long Live the mystical wizards!

[Clevey Clev]

I am a subscriber to Bob's letter also, so i followed this story from its inception when Bob began to rant off incessantly for a few days which prompted the reply from the doors manager personally. Good digg, Bob certainly has an interesting perspective on things.