Thoughts: Commodification of ... Everything

A recent blog on Larvatus Prodeo got me stirred up about a long held whinge RE: how the move to "franching" everything led to team names I had no association with.

Rugby Union lost me as “growing market” when the Super-12’s went “franchise” mode and they became SO obsessed with “branding” that I could never work out who was playing who.

Gone are the days of Queensland vs NSW - we now have “the Blues vs the Crusaders”. I keep expecting to see NSW playing against … well, actually I still have no idea who the Crusaders are. I used to think the Highlanders were from South Africa (instead of NZ) because I kept picturing Tabletop Mountain in Jo-burg (etc, etc, etc).

The same was true of the “Sheffield Shield” (sorry, Pura Cup - geez, what a crappy name for a competition) and the use of idiot names for the State Teams. I still hardly know who’s playing who in these matches as well.

Unless you’re a rabid supporter, these names mean nothing to Joe Public and rather than drag me in, they tend to frustrate me and turn me off them…