Canned water company Liquid Death teamed up with investor, athlete ambassador and skateboard icon to create a limited edition set of skateboards painted with the Hawk’s own blood.
The boards were created by Prime Skateboards and Liquid Death took a vial of Hawk’s blood and mixed it with the paint – ensuring there was a piece of Hawk DNA in every one of the 100 boards – and then handed artwork responsibility over to Will Carsola (the artists behind the brand’s can design).
The blood adds a splash of colour to which are selling for $500 apiece, and 10% of the profits are reinvested to support 5 Gyres’ mission to rid the world of plastic pollution, while the rest of the money will help fund Hawk’s ‘Skatepark Project’ which helps youth in underserved communities.
The late August initiative was created as a collaboration between Liquid Death’s in-house creative team and creative agency Humanaut.
The board-led blood stunt was promoted through a PR led campaign revolving around video and still imagery of the blood being drawn from Hawks’ arm amplified across the brand and the ambassador’s social channels and seeded across skateboard platforms.
According to Liquid Death Creative VP Andy Pearson, the brand didn’t have to do too much to convince Hawk to do it. “We told him the idea, then he laughed and said he loved it,” says Pearson. “He’s bled enough on a skate ramp before, so it wasn’t a big deal for him at all.”
“Every day, fans sell their soul to us to access the Liquid Death Country Club” in exchange for merchandise, said Pearson. “So we figured, if Tony was our ambassador, we should probably own his soul, too. And his blood. So, then it was a pretty easy, logical jump to putting it into skate-deck designs.”
“To anyone who grew up skating, or watching TV, or playing videos, or just being alive at any point in the last few decades, Tony is the man,” added Pearson. “Our co-founder and CEO Mike Cessario actually has a tattoo of the original Tony Hawk skateboard graphics. We happened to come into contact with Tony through our Liquid Death skate team. He really liked the brand and wanted to get involved. This idea just pushes how far a celebrity is willing to get involved for the brands they rep.”
Comment:
Previous Liquid Death marketing stunts have ranged from slasher films, zombie infomercials and line of utilated toys – but none have generated the same kind of free publicity as the bloody skateboards. That really is a sign of Tony Hawk’s enduring ambassadorial appeal.
It seems that the appeal of the celebrity-endorsed product continues unchecked – as long as the angle feels fresh and cuts through and this approach seems to subvert the core celebrity culture concept.
Hawk was even part of the brand’s most recent funding round in May, along with Live Nation, Wiz Khalifa, Steve Aoki, Hulu president Kelly Campbell, and Dollar Shave Club founder Michael Dubin.
Liquid death was originally founded in 2017 and was based around the comic idea of blending a heavy metal and beer style aesthetic, branding and packaging with the expanding consumer water market.
Let’s be grateful the blood isn’t actually in the water itself.
This is a macabre marketing stunt in the mold of Lil Nas X collaboration with art collective MSCHF on customized Nikes which were dubbed ‘Satan Shoes’ as they featured one drop of his blood in the soles. This latter initiative generated plenty of publicity and saw the shoe brand sue MSCHF and Nas X to recall the unofficial shoes.
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