For the LAST time, the Blackberry Curve Challenge is NOT an adventure race
posted Wednesday, June 18, 2008 by Yak @ 9:02 AM -
5 comments
It's a marketing gimmick to sell Blackberries sponsored by the likes of Verizon, Facebook, Guitar Hero III and...wait for it...iTOOKthisONmyPHONE.com.You can't make this s@#$ up :-/
Look, I'm sure it's a blast...I'm all for it...if I lived in Boston (I used to), Minneapolis, Portland or San Francisco there is every chance I'd give it a try.
Seriously, I'm all for this kind of event. It gets people off the couch, makes creative use of a ubiquitous and otherwise utilitarian trapping of modern life and I think we'd all rather see companies like RIM putting their marketing dollars into things like this instead of traditional advertising (unless you're gonna do it as well as Geico).
That's not the point.
The point is that adventure racing is adventure racing and every other kind of racing...no matter how adventurous...ISN'T.
Outdoornewswire.com disagrees.
5 Comments:
These types of events are kind of cool though.
City Chase is similar And after watching the number of people it attracted in Philadelphia I think they are on to something. I didn't get to play but mini-me and I served as the "designated home googler" for baby momma's team.
It's AR in a sense. You get clues instead of UTMs to identify locations and the flags are landmarks, businesses or organizations that get an opportunity to promote themselves.
Like AR, fast, well organized, strategic thinkers tend to win and maybe to an even larger extent hometown knowledge is a huge advantage that can overcome superior speed.
I agree...very creative...I'm sure they're a ton of fun.
Fact remains the point is to market phones.
Adventure racing has it's roots in the Raid and Eco Challenge.
The Blackberry Curve Adventure Challenge has it's roots in the conference room of marketing firm...
Yeah, yeah and Solyent Green is people.
I was thinking about this a bit more. Maybe it's not "Adventure Racing". It's "Amazing Racing". I'm sure the nice folks at CBS have that name trademarked up the wazoo. But that's kind of the flavor. Teams figuring out clues and running around town (versus the planet) to engage in brief challenges.
Don't give the phone marketers too much credit for creating something. They've really just knocked something off. And what's wrong with a little product sponsorship of an event to sell more product? Somebody out there would like to see us buying more Inov-8 shoes. ;)
Please DO go buy some Inov-8 shoes...and a pack...and some shades from Numa, a couple of maps from MyTopo, and a truckload of nuun :-)
Sponsorship of sporting events is not only necessary, but in fact a wonderful thing. Checkpoint Zero (the site, the team, the events, the Series) would not exist without it's sponsors.
The ONLY point I was trying to make, albeit with sarcasm and humor, is that among all the various forms of sporting events that one might call "adventure racing" there are some that more closely resemble this particular sports history and there are more and more that are giving that label for no apparent reason other than it sells.
Because of this the very meaning of the phrase "adventure racing" is steadily evolving to mean any kind of outdoor racing that isn't clearly defined as something else (triathlon, ultra-running, etc).
I am of the opinion that those of us that are (or in my case were) actual adventure racers...in the historical sense of the word...know the difference, but that the vast majority of the mainstream do not.
Every time something like the Blackberry Curve Challenge is labeled as an adventure race the original meaning is diluted.
I am an advocate for adventure racing as it was originally envisioned.
Teams racing night and day, by map and compass, by human power, over varied terrain, by way of various different sporting disciplines...
There is no hard and fast definition. I think we can all agree on that.
I think we can also all agree that there is a BIG difference between what is about to happen in Montana and what will happen at the Blackberry Curve Challenge events.
I don't care what you call it. You put $6k up for grabs and I'll be there! And that was for SECOND place. Third got $3k! Urban race, adventure race, sprint, 3k, bobbing for apples... whatever!
Read about the six thousand dollar penny here:
http://dirtyavocados.com/blog/archives/230
I'm going to go back to kicking myself...
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