Can You Spot the Cornell Product Placement?
Remember that New York Times piece last year about Cornell’s “image development” team? Well, their hard work has finally paid off. No, they didn’t crack the top 10 in the U.S. News rankings. But whether they know it or not, Cornell is hot again, thanks to a gentleman named Mims.
Pause the above video at 2:03 and you’ll see what we mean — a dude clad head to toe in bright Big Freaking Cornell Red. Two possible theories: Either 1) this is the savviest product placement of all time, or 2) the Ivies have somehow defied all cultural laws and penetrated hip-hop.
The answer is, of course, the latter, according to the New York Observer piece that brought this video to our attention. Ivy League jackets, jerseys, and hats are flying off shelves across New York and Jersey partly because, in the words of one clothing exec, “maybe in the past these doors weren’t available, and that in these days these doors are getting kicked down.” Wait — does that make us fans of Chamillionaire, for performing on MTV in a Harvard varsity jacket?
At one point, the author asks a customer sporting a Crimson hat what the “H” stands for:
“Hot,” he said. “Hustler. Hood.” …
He was not wearing the matching Harvard jacket. “I’m not too much with the red jacket,” said Mr. Mincey, who is a security guard at a local warehouse. “That’s the Bloods-I’m not down with that.” In his girlfriend’s neighborhood, he explained, he often sees reputed Bloods members wandering around in the Harvard jackets.
Does that mean gang wars will start to look like a Harvard-Yale showdown, or vice versa? It wouldn’t be the first time.
15 Comments | 
| 
Print This Post
Read more: Cornell, couture, Harvard
Email – 
Search
About
Follow us on Twitter
Report a bug
Archives
RSS Feed
February 8th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Again, beaten to the punch by Pablog.
http://www.thecrimson.com/blogentry.aspx?blogID=25&ref=364
February 8th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Seriously, why don’t people just skip this site and go straight to Pablog?
February 8th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
i guess those “ithaca is gansta” t-shirts that some people wear around campus aren’t too far off.
February 8th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
My children! Let us all coexist in a peaceful blogosphere.
February 9th, 2007 at 12:16 am
That is a Reds hat and Jacket, not Cornell.
February 9th, 2007 at 2:35 am
Nope, I’m a cinci fan and the Cinci ‘C’ has a leftward protrusion near the middle. This doesn’t.
February 9th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Some people prefer to get their news from a Columbia people, who are relatively neutral players in the HYP ’snootier than thou’ contest than from the focal point of pretension in American education. Also, the color crimson is not all that pleasant to stare at while reading gossip.
February 9th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
You’re all faggots. Nobody cares about mims, or harvard, or your small asian dicks. THE END. EL FIN.
February 10th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Way to elevate the discourse.
February 10th, 2007 at 11:11 am
You’re all faggots. Nobody cares about mims, or harvard, or your small asian dicks. THE END. EL FIN.
Who knew you could cram so much homophobia, racism, and anti-intellectualism into so few words?
February 12th, 2007 at 10:48 am
For those who asked for further evidence that Cornell should be purged from the Ivy League…
February 13th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
haha so clever “the truth”… actually, Dartmouth is the highest selling Ivy League school among clothes brands to urban youth…followed by Harvard. In other words, you’re a huge douche.
February 13th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Truth_haha_so_clever, you have a source on that claim?
just curious.
February 13th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Yeah, this article which is mentioned in the blog: http://www.observer.com/20070212/20070212_Jonathan_Miller_thecity_newsstory1.asp
“The No. 1 seller of 2006 would have been Dartmouth,” he said.
Chamillionare also performed on MTV in a Harvard jacket.
Most of these people don’t even know that these schools exist… it’s just fashion.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Let me give you several examples: When you are sports fan you are united to that team. ,