Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) put out a video last fall on the subject of what he terms "The Thank You Economy." But as I watched my Wisconsin friends posting/tweeting about the Saints-Vikings game tonight, I realized that I'd come face-to-face with that economy's dark side--something that Mr. Vaynerchuk likewise mentions in those three minutes of homebrew video. No, it's not particularly ladylike, but I still call it "The FU Economy." And I think anyone who lives in The Dairy State knows darned well that I'm talking about Brett Farve.
Just a very few years ago, I remember Deanna Favre's book about her battle with breast cancer being so popular that--I am not making this up--the local grocery store offered it for sale. And people who probably wouldn't have stuffed money in a pink ribboned jar ponied up for that book (whose proceeds, IIRC, went directly toward the fight against the pink flavor of cancer). Not, of course, to reward even so handsome a woman for the trouble of recording her story, but because she's Lady Favre, darnitalready. That's The Thank You Economy in action. In spades.
Fast forward through a couple changes in jersey colors (but not numbers), aaaaannnd...eh, not so much.
Such repercussions, naturally, make me not a little sad. But for better or worse--in this case most definitely worse--it's an unsurprising feature of The FU Economy. Most especially in a situation where "brand loyalty" dates backto 1919, not 1992.
