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    Tom ScoccaTom Scocca
    7/07/14 5:23pm

    What would they have gotten from a control group of people who don't run Tough Mudders, if they'd asked their opinions about that same made-up person lurking around Tough Mudder events and trying to convince his friends and family he'd run them when he hadn't? As someone who has zero interest in running a Tough Mudder (aka no "investment" in the "Tough Mudder brand"), I'd think that imaginary person was a creep.

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      GalFromBrooklynTom Scocca
      7/07/14 5:25pm

      Oh man. Can we just call everyone involved in this tedious study a mudderfucker and be done with it?

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      OMG!PONIES!Tom Scocca
      7/07/14 5:37pm

      Why did Harvard perform this study?

      It should have been conducted at Cornell University, which also has the "ag school," whose graduates are viewed as Poors and phonies by the rest of the student body.

      For the record, I say that as an NYU alum who went to New York Law School and stopped correcting people long ago.

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    OMG!PONIES!Tom Scocca
    7/07/14 5:30pm

    The best brand immigrant I've seen is every owner of a Bentley Flying Spur 300m.

    Bentley makes very expensive cars, including the Flying Spur.

    Chrysler makes fairly shitty cars, including the 300m, which looks very much like the Flying Spur.

    So, what is a somewhat common occurrence is someone putting a Bentley logo onto a Chrysler to make it look like a Flying Spur. And quite frequently, they forget to remove the 300m badge from the back of the car.

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      faustocoppiOMG!PONIES!
      7/07/14 5:42pm

      I am firmly convinced that Jaguar collapsed in the US several years ago because their sedan had a profile that was indistinguishable from a Sonata.

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      OMG!PONIES!faustocoppi
      7/07/14 5:46pm

      It also had a lot to do with the pretentious commercial narrator saying "Chag-you-ahr."

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    GalFromBrooklynTom Scocca
    7/07/14 5:23pm

    I am confused as to why the social 'scientists' named the liars and impostors 'immigrants' as opposed to say, oh, 'impostors' or 'liars'. Do the nuances of semantics elude them?

    A brand immigrant would be someone who joined a particular culture when it was in a relatively mature stage, not someone who merely viewed it from a safe distance and then returned home and lied about being a participant to his friends and family.

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      Ron StackGalFromBrooklyn
      7/08/14 12:55pm

      That's exactly right. Brands that see a lot of this have to consider whether to change at the margins to accommodate the immigrants. I think NASCAR has done this very openly. I think Red Bull has, too, but they might deny it. You know who hasn't? The US Marine Corps.

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      GalFromBrooklynRon Stack
      7/09/14 1:46pm

      How is NASCAR doing this? And how is Red Bull doing this but why are they also denying it? And when you say the USMC hasn't done this, what are you wanting them to do instead?

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    SmitrosTom Scocca
    7/07/14 5:48pm

    And to think that people have long used non-monetized concepts like "reputation" and "honor." Damn.

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      SpunkyFoonerismSmitros
      7/08/14 1:32pm

      We need to monetize those concepts, pronto! "I'm a pulmonologist, and I only smoke Reputation brand cigarettes." "Nine out of ten 'family values' politicians who are also adulterers wear Honor brand tinfoil on their heads!"

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    snowTom Scocca
    7/07/14 5:20pm

    Perhaps treating everything as a "brand" is not always the clearest way to understand human activity?

    It's also a great way to remove all meaning from the word - indeed the very concept of - "brand", which one would think would be somewhat unpopular among marketing people and suchlike who find the concept a useful one.

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      OMG!PONIES!snow
      7/07/14 5:41pm

      branding: a method by which a rancher can mark members of a herd that belong to him by affixing to that member a distinctive mark

      I love being part of the herd.

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    em_pdTom Scocca
    7/07/14 6:07pm

    Good thing they didn't run the same test with Ironman participants . . . they would have bum rushed "Mike". They take their finisher t-shirts very seriously, indeed.

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      BigAsnem_pd
      7/07/14 9:42pm

      As they should, finishing an Ironman is a tremendous feat. What's a bit off about this study is that for Tough Mudder, only finishers get the orange headband (which I didn't see mentioned). There are lots of people who come to spectate, take pics, party and that's all good.. I only did one event, but everyone had a great inclusive attitude. However, I'd be pretty upset myself if someone who didn't finish the race went around with a fake orange headband saying they completed it. Yeah, it's a silly headband, but one that I suffered 12 miles and 26 obstacles for.. 2 miles of which were on a torn achilles. You earn that headband dammit!

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      em_pdBigAsn
      7/08/14 1:28am

      Like Ironman, Tough Mudder is a branded accomplishment for people who have (generally) never:

      1) Gone out and crushed epic runs and rides for the sake of doing it

      2) Competed at any sport at the highest level.

      You're the person who was pissed off at "Mike". Did you get an M-Dot tattoo?

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    PlantinMoretusTom Scocca
    7/07/14 5:32pm

    "Perhaps treating everything as a "brand" is not always the clearest way to understand human activity?"

    I think we're too far gone for that. Brand concepts really do influence human behaviour, now, at least in consumer societies. It starts in childhood and most people stick with it well into their adulthood, and lots of people are really invested in it. I managed to offend someone just today on a brand issue.

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