joshedwards.com » ESPN

Rory McIlroy

Josh — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:17:11 +0000

I don’t give a hoot about golf (much to the chagrin of my in-laws, no doubt) but I did see a clip of 21-year-old Irish phenomenon Rory McIlroy, who tied a record at the British Open today.

I also saw who sponsors him, Dubai’s Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts (as seen in this clip from ESPN):

I guess he won the Dubai Desert Classic last year, as well. Huh.

Good Bye ESPN Zone

Josh — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:24:22 +0000

It wasn’t a great concept – is it for kids or for drunk adults? – but it’s still sad: “Disney to close 5 ESPN Zone restaurants.”

They’re keeping the one at Disneyland’s Downtown Disney and one near the Staples Center in LA.

Little Coverage of New Coke

Josh — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:25:49 +0000

I was kind of surprised there wasn’t much on the internets about New Coke’s 25th anniversary the other day. The one story I saw was ESPN Page 2: “New Coke: the gift that keeps on giving analogies.”

Key funny:

They set out to provide Pepsi in a red can. They ended up giving us so much more. Twenty-five years ago Friday, the product and brand management masterminds at Coca-Cola introduced New Coke — a cola-formula-changing misstep so profound, so epochal, so mind-numbingly misguided that it quickly transcended the realm of mere marketing blunder and became something else entirely: a lasting, pitch-perfect, near-Shakespearean metaphor for colossal, foolhardy failure poured from a 12-ounce can of corporate hubris, sipped through a straw of not leaving well enough alone.

For that, I’m so very, very grateful.

Wide World of Sports Rebranding

Josh — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:31:47 +0000

While I guess the signs have been changed for some time, today’s the official relaunch of Walt Disney World’s Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex as the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

Even though I’ve been to WDW several times since the complex opened in 1997, I’ve still never seen it.

Maybe next time …