Out of Scope Issue 112: Dodgers Strike Out
Plus: Congressional dress code and Lululemon boots dupes
Memorial Day is an important chance for us to remember, but it also kicks off the sunny season. Relaxing, refreshing, and unwinding seem to be on everyone’s minds these days. Whether it’s kicking off your dress shoes in the Oval Office, attending a controversially-themed baseball game, or sitting by the pool reading some saucy, AI-generated marketing collateral, it’s hard not to look around and think: summer’s here!
💡ON OUR MINDS: Dodgers Strike Out
It’s almost Pride Month, and at this point, it seems accompanying poorly-planned queer-themed branding is just an annual tradition. What should be a cause for recognition, remembrance, and celebration is too often used by corporations as insincere marketing fodder.
The Los Angeles Dodgers got a running start on dropping the ball this year and, before the month kicks off in earnest, found themselves at odds with LGBTQ rights groups.
While promoting their Pride Night, the LA team faced backlash from Senator Marco Rubio, who, despite any apparent connection to the LA Dodgers, baseball, or California, came out of left field to criticize the Dodgers’ recognition of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The group was quickly uninvited from the festivities.
The Sisters are an order of drag nuns who have been active in the community for 40+ years and, following a social media storm from LGBTQ supporters, were eventually re-invited, resulting in a grand slam of a failed pride campaign.
The lessons here are plentiful: the Dodgers bent their mission to unaffiliated stakeholders looking to make a stink and eventually had to publicly walk back their plans surrounding a sensitive social topic, ultimately striking out big time.
📡 ON OUR RADAR
A mounting crisis in Washington is spurring panic nationwide—no, not that one. Every day is Casual Friday with Senator John Fetterman, whose gym shorts and front lawn hangs are upsetting the hallowed halls of Congress. Lax dress codes have also caught on across the aisle— House leader Kevin McCarthy was spotted rocking sneakers in the Oval Office. Regardless, the public has expressed simultaneous support and disbelief at the embrace of casual attire in politics. Fetterman’s everyman personal brand may have won him a Senate seat, but it is now posing a reputational challenge that begs the age-old question: do the gym clothes really make the man?
In a world of fakes, dare to be real – said your mother’s inspirational throw pillow and now, also, Lululemon. After years of watching consumers buy dupes of their famous leggings, Lululemon hosted a “Dupe Swap” and encouraged customers to trade in their dupes for the real deal — free of cost. The move comes at a critical moment in the e-commerce boom and offers a playbook for brands struggling to compete with the TikTok-driven dupe phenomenon.
Axios released its 2023 poll ranking brands by reputation. We’re not surprised to see Patagonia on top - the outdoor clothing company is often cited as the gold standard for mission-driven branding, from its environmental activism to its company culture. More notable are brands that have traversed stormier waters in the past, like Chick-fil-A (#5) and Amazon (#8). Check out the full list here and the Axios podcast about the reputational challenges faced by companies on the list.
Smoothie King has entered the ChickLit genre with the help of ChatGPT. That’s right, Smoothie King announced they will be publishing an AI-written romance novel titled A Summer Fling to the X-Treme to build hype for their seasonal X-Treme Watermelon smoothie. It’s too soon to tell if the book will get the Wattpad straight-to-streaming film treatment, but until then, we salute Smoothie King for its inventive thinking and agility in hopping on the romance renaissance bandwagon.
🥊QUICK HITS:
In case you missed these stories.
The WSJ lets its hair down, doing away with courtesy titles to better fit today’s informal news landscape.
Pope Francis assigned Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to his Ukrainian peace campaign. Making the mission an open secret puts pressure on both countries to end the conflict.
“DiFi AI” has entered the running to replace Dianne Feinstein in the Senate.
Thanks for reading,
HL
===
This week’s newsletter is brought to you by killer whales joining the class war.