I went to watch England take on Argentina in the rugby this weekend with a bunch of mates at Twickenham and experienced a new low for English rugby - I am not referring to the standard of play - it was pretty dreadful but I have seen worse - but rather to the woeful attempt to "launch" the comeback of the English purple shirts.
When we sat down there was a card left on every seat which announced the return of the shirts worn by the famous amateur teams of the 70's and 80's and asked everyone to hold up the card after the National Anthems to spell out "wear it proud" - everyone duly obeyed and to all we could see was the Nike "swoosh" at the South and North stand. The response from the crowd around me was one of immediate disdain resulting in ripped up card or cards being thrown in the pitch.
I was told after that the stand I was in did spell out "wear it proud" but by then the damage was done - in the days of transparency and respect for the consumer this sort of stunt really shouldn't happen and has resulted in far more negative publicity than could ever have been achieved by the exercise.
Brands really should consider very carefully how they approach this sort of activity and Nike really should know better !