Pixelgate, Photoshop Wars, And Other Dead Horses In Obstacle Racing

Ahhhh… Certain things never go away. And yes, we are still talking about the Spartan Race and the competitors’ logos in their photos. Yet another #shirtstorm broke out after the Spartan Race has blurred out the BattleFrog logo from Ryan Atkins’ shirt.

Horror.

dead horse

Let’s see.

A photo is considered to be promotional material. OF COURSE, Spartan Race will remove a logo of a direct competitor from their PROMO MATERIALS. Why wouldn’t they?

#ShirtStormAgain
#ShirtGate2
#PixelGate
#DeadHorse

Instead of detailed discussion on brand competition and/or violation of personal freedom (been there, done that – read the blog post here), I present to you the photo essay of the most recent Photoshop war that broke out over yet another altered image.

First, the original image that started it all.

001

At least one BattleFrog fan shot back with this (note Joe sporting BF logo and a luminous smile).

joe in BF gear

BattleFrog came back with this gem (bonus points for the sense of humour):

no spartan logo

Yet another BattleFrog fan took it up a notch:

all blurred

And another notch:

all BF

Nice touch from the Canada Goose:

canadian goose

Feel angry and upset about something? Photoshop to the rescue!

run a BF

Oh, and when in doubt, crop man’s head onto a woman’s body. That will show him.

joe color run

Perhaps, my favorite take on the #Pixelgate conundrum is below. Gentlemen, I think you both have a business idea there somewhere. Start selling those – quick!

another earl

1. Of course, Spartan Race will blur out the logo of their competition from their own promotional materials. Yes, some companies do not do that, but they also do not have the reach that the Spartan Race does. To have another logo on their podium is free advertising for another race: “Hmmm… what is this BattleFrog thing? Let me learn more”.

2. The unfortunate (for Spartan Race) side effect of all this chatter is that it ends up creating quite a bit of PR for BattleFrog, and quite a bit of negative buzz for Spartan Race -even though they are simply engaging in a standard business practice. Lose-lose.

horse2

Am I missing a photo? Send it my way, and I will include it in the blog post.

Hugs,
SOLO

posted: May 22, 2015