Reebok is offering fitness junkies a chance to earn a yearlong sponsorship deal worth about $5,800, with a major catch: the prize will only go to the fanatic who gets the largest tattoo of the brand's logo in a one-day pop-up studio.
With an assist from Stockholm-based tattoo parlor Salong Betong, the brand will set up shop at Sweden's Tough Viking obstacle race event on Aug. 30. Whoever ends up volunteering for the biggest tattoo of the Reebok logo will walk away with a package worth 40,0000 Swedish krona (almost $6,000) that can be redeemed at an online or brick-and-mortar Reebok store.
Runners-up—defined in this case as anyone bold enough to get a logo etched onto his or her body—will get a consolation prize of a Reebok fitness kit worth 5,000 Swedish krona, or about $725.
It's not the global sportswear company's first time building a live event activation around giving consumers free ink. At South by Southwest in 2013, Reebok footed the bill for 45 people to get tattoos of their choosing, if they would agree to appear in the brand's marketing. And while Reebok is definitely more stable than, say, an Internet startup or a local realtor, it's also safe to say that sometimes branded tattoos don't really work out that well.
In fairness to Reebok, the new campaign, created with The Viral Company, is aimed in part at notoriously hardcore CrossFit practitioners, which the brand has put at the center of its marketing strategy in recent years. Reebok's crown-jewel CrossFit business served as the springboard for the new logo it launched this past spring, symbolic of its shift from focusing on pro athletes to intense amateurs.
The tagline sums up the philosophy pretty well: "Pain is temporary. Reebok is forever." Maybe so. Then again, looking in the mirror 30 years down the line and seeing a giant logo—or paying an arm and a leg to get it removed—might sting a bit.
