Are you serious? This slogan has been the butt of jokes since it came out across all media. It is a horrendous marketing effort.
Really...god awful. Iowa's marketing dept. could take a lesson from ISU.
My thoughts exactly...
- Thread starter Al_4_State
- Start date
- Status
Are you serious? This slogan has been the butt of jokes since it came out across all media. It is a horrendous marketing effort.
Really...god awful. Iowa's marketing dept. could take a lesson from ISU.
I applaud you for trying to bring this thread back to rational grounds, unfortunately it was too far gone. Look, fellas, it's a sticker. He brings up a great point here; how many times have we seen ISU fans on here say that ISU needs to focus more on out of state players than in-state players? While some of you have pointed out that this is a ridiculous strategy, ISU for the most part, has gone out of state for their players. (Iowa too, but not to that extent) Now you're getting all fired up because the team in the state that has more native Iowans on the team** has a sticker supporting a vital group of people in our state? Can't have your cake and eat it.
**Haven't checked the rosters to see if this is accurate, but I'm sure it is
I personally can't believe this thread hasn't been closed yet.
Okay, substitute with support with recognizing if it makes you feel any better, still doesn't change the fact that this whole thing is blown out of proportion and ridiculous.
By all means, do as you wish. You are arguing over people dumb enough to be "taken advantage of". By all accounts, not people you'd want as fans anyway, right?
I'd say neither are implicitly dumb. But a farmer that is a hawkeye fan most likely IS dumb.
Well, since your reply to my first post was about farmers, I'm going to go ahead and guess that is who we are talking about.
So let me get this straight. Iowa puts a sticker on their helmet recognizing, taking advantage of, supporting, whatever, farmers in the state of Iowa. Meanwhile these farmers are apparently too stupid to know the difference between what institution contributes more to the ag community than the other--let alone figure out what the acronym "ANF" stands for. If they are that stupid, then why would ISU fans want them as part of their elite intellectual fan base?
So in essence, you are arguing over a group of fans that you wouldn't want in your fan base anyway, am I understanding this correctly?
The original blog post, and almost everything posted here, is complete and utter garbage. Not only do they perpetuation the stereotype (perhaps justified) that our fanbase is a bunch of whiny cry babies they both display a staggering amount of ignorance and a complete lack of perspective.
The ANF stickers drew a lot of attention to the plight of the Iowa family farm in the 80’s. And thought it wasn’t enough to save my grandfathers 500 acre farm I know for a fact it was appreciated by him, and everyone else in my family.
In order to wear that sticker on their helmets it needed to be classified as a team “logo†which necessitates that it be trademarked. As with any trademarked logo it may then be sold provided the organization receives royalties. While these royalties don’t go to ISU they do stay instate and therefore go directly toward helping Iowan’s.
I’ve got an idea, if we are concerned about drawing attention to the plight of the family farm (which is every bit as endangered now as it was in 1985) maybe we can come up with our own idea? Then all we’d need to do is figure out a way to make our football program relevant enough for it to actually draw attention to it. At the very least we could maybe ask permission to wear the ANF sticker on our helmets, I’m sure the folks at Iowa wouldn’t mind.
BTW the ultimate irony in all of this is while we are one of the most advanced and prestigious Ag schools in the world one could make the argument that ISU is acting as a catalyst in process in which the corporate farm is overtaking the family farm. While the family farm can indeed benefit from the advances in Ag efficiency that ISU has helped develop there is no doubt that these advances have helped the corporate farm more. As they apply the corporate model to farming they are in a much better position to utilize new and often capital intensive technologies and due to their size are in a much better position to maximize it’s benefits. It’s helping to widen the gap between revenues of the family farm and the corporate farm.
The ANF stickers drew a lot of attention to the plight of the Iowa family farm in the 80’s. And thought it wasn’t enough to save my grandfathers 500 acre farm I know for a fact it was appreciated by him, and everyone else in my family.
In order to wear that sticker on their helmets it needed to be classified as a team “logo†which necessitates that it be trademarked. As with any trademarked logo it may then be sold provided the organization receives royalties. While these royalties don’t go to ISU they do stay instate and therefore go directly toward helping Iowan’s.
I’ve got an idea, if we are concerned about drawing attention to the plight of the family farm (which is every bit as endangered now as it was in 1985) maybe we can come up with our own idea? Then all we’d need to do is figure out a way to make our football program relevant enough for it to actually draw attention to it. At the very least we could maybe ask permission to wear the ANF sticker on our helmets, I’m sure the folks at Iowa wouldn’t mind.
BTW the ultimate irony in all of this is while we are one of the most advanced and prestigious Ag schools in the world one could make the argument that ISU is acting as a catalyst in process in which the corporate farm is overtaking the family farm. While the family farm can indeed benefit from the advances in Ag efficiency that ISU has helped develop there is no doubt that these advances have helped the corporate farm more. As they apply the corporate model to farming they are in a much better position to utilize new and often capital intensive technologies and due to their size are in a much better position to maximize it’s benefits. It’s helping to widen the gap between revenues of the family farm and the corporate farm.
I don't get why Cyclone fans are upset by this?
Fry put them on there back in the 80's during the Farm Crisis.
Iowa may not promote a lot of agriculture, but I would assume a very large portion of their fan base makes their living off of Agriculture.
By having that logo, they are doing something. You can't argue that over the past 20 years their football program has had way more TV exposure. TV exposure helps promote the idea of ANF......
Fry put them on there back in the 80's during the Farm Crisis.
Iowa may not promote a lot of agriculture, but I would assume a very large portion of their fan base makes their living off of Agriculture.
By having that logo, they are doing something. You can't argue that over the past 20 years their football program has had way more TV exposure. TV exposure helps promote the idea of ANF......
I don't think anyone was really upset by the sticker itself (at least not me) but the trademarking of it. Since it's been pointed out that it was necessary for them to do this, I retract any statements I said about it.
That and I'm going to pretend it's Abercrombie & Fitch. Thanks Gitwitit
HEY! Look here, Mr. Wisenheimer, your logic, maturity, intelligence and rock-solid rationale have no place here. You either start foaming at the mouth and joining in the lunatic banshee wailing of all-consuming neurosis, or get out. You yucky grownup, you.
Really? How so? You might not agree with what I say, but I never personally attack people here.
Well, if you believe that the ANF decal was done simply as a gesture of goodwill and solidarity, then we will have to agree to disagree. I think it was (at least in part) a well-planned, calculated attempt to win over some more fans in this state. Fry was very open regarding his desire to bury Iowa State and make the Cyclones completely irrelevant, and a big part of that is winning over the unattached fans. To Iowa's credit, they were VERY successful in doing so throughout the 80s (with a nice assist from a cluster of incompetent football coaches in Ames).
Okay. But why bring it back now, and why does it need to be placed on the helmet? If Iowa's only desire was to give a shout out the farmers, then they could do it a number of different ways, and they wouldn't have to go through all of that "hassle" of trademarking and collecting royalties.
I think it's somewhat naive to think that this was just something Iowa had to do to get the mark on the helmet. I'm guessing they are more than happy to know that checks from royalties will be coming in. It's easy money if the product sells.
As for the royalties going "directly toward helping Iowans," I suppose you could say that in a roundabout way. But if that's the case, then every university in the state can say that about most of their revenue sources. Bottom line is this money will help the U of I do things for the U of I.
I sent a letter to Micheal Gartner and he concurs with this being a fiasco. Expect the Board of Regents to come down soon with a rule banning Iowa from wearing the helmet decals.
I wonder if it could count as a memorial recognition? Those are allowed on helmets and, although I don't know for sure, I wouldn't think that royalties are charged on those. Also, any idea if they were collecting royalties for it in the '80s? The guy who wrote the article sort of implies that it's something that's only happening now that it's been brought back.
Regardless, it's kind of a non-issue anyway unless they start widely marketing it all over the place. It's not like our cyclONEs campaign we pimp for all it's worth or like they're trying to create their next abstract bird.. logo.... thing -- it's just a little sticker. Maybe I just shop in the wrong places, but I haven't exactly seen 'ANF' plastered all over Hawkeye merchandise.
- Status