Twins make deal with estate to sell Prince merch
Well, the Twins may have just gotten a little funkier. The MLB team just inked a deal with his Royal Badness’ estate that allows Target Field to sell Prince-branded merchandise year-round after the baseball team secured a deal with the singer’s estate.
The agreement also ensures that the Twins will once again celebrate the Minnesota icon’s legacy with a second annual Prince Night at Minneapolis’ Target Field.
According to the Minnesota Star-Tribune (via Pitchfork), the Twins will sell items including purple hats that feature both Prince’s “Love Symbol” and the team’s “TC” Twin Cities logo, as well as Prince-branded baseballs, shirts and more. The merchandise will be available exclusively at Target Field.
The 2018 season’s Prince Night will take place June 8th, with the first 10,000 fans in attendance receiving an inflatable shaped like Prince’s purple symbol guitar. The team will also host a “special remembrance” to Prince during the 7th Inning Stretch.
“Along with our fans, we look forward to celebrating the legacy of a man who brought an international spotlight to our great city,” Twins CEO Dave St. Peter said.
The Star-Tribune adds that the merchandising deal, the first of its kind, was struck between the Twins’ retail provider and the company that the Prince estate hired for branding opportunities. The Twins stated that Prince’s family also approved of the agreement.
No word on whether the team will change their uniforms to lace or purple.
Dick’s bans assault-style rifles
As brands continue to assess their relationships with the National Rifle Association, a few have taken a further step and ended or altered their relationships. We just reported on United discontinuing their discount for NRA members.
While Dick’s Sporting Goods, which has 29 stores in Illinois and is a major gun dealer, has not ended officially ended its relationship with the NRA, they have taken a strong stance by discontinuing the sale of assault rifles in the wake of the Parkland, Florida massacre two week ago.
The retailer also said that it would no longer sell high-capacity magazines and that it would not sell any gun to anyone under 21 years of age, regardless of local laws.
ALSO READ: United Airlines ends NRA discount & other news
In a statement, Dick’s Chairman and CEO, 63-year-old Edward Stack made clear his company’s stance in a statement, “We at DICK’S Sporting Goods are deeply disturbed and saddened by the tragic events in Parkland. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the victims and their loved ones,” adding, “But thoughts and prayers are not enough… We believe it’s time to do something about it.”
The statement goes on to list the actions that Dick’s is taking:
• We will no longer sell assault-style rifles, also referred to as modern sporting rifles. We had already removed them from all DICK’S stores after the Sandy Hook massacre, but we will now remove them from sale at all 35 Field & Stream stores.
• We will no longer sell firearms to anyone under 21 years of age.
• We will no longer sell high capacity magazines.
• We never have and never will sell bump stocks that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire more rapidly. At the same time, we implore our elected officials to enact common sense gun reform and pass the following regulations:
• Ban assault-style firearms
• Raise the minimum age to purchase firearms to 21
• Ban high capacity magazines and bump stocks
• Require universal background checks that include relevant mental health information and previous interactions with the law
• Ensure a complete universal database of those banned from buying firearms
• Close the private sale and gun show loophole that waives the necessity of background checks
The full statement can be read here.
UPDATED: Walmart says it will raise age restriction to 21 for gun purchases and remove items resembling assault-style rifles from website.
Mono introduces fastest internship application process. Ever.
Minneapolis-based agency Mono is finally doing something about those long and pesky internship applications. Called “Mono Dash” the agency is touting it as “the fastest internship application process, ever” for all your limited attention span needs.
The timed application process takes under five minutes, with the agency choosing to emphasize honesty and immediacy over grammar and long-winded responses.
Potential interns upload their resume and cover letter, and contact info. Applicants are then given 60-seconds to provide a bio. Then they go through a series of questions for which they have 30-seconds to respond, for a total of 3 minutes, which range from what they’d do if a client had spinach stuck in their teeth to crafting a personal tagline.
The agency is looking to fill seven full-time paid internship positions, including copywriter, art director, design director, digital designer, producer, project manager, strategist and video editor.
Get going!
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri” inspired billboard of the day
If you’re driving along I-480 in Cleveland, you might be distracted by three billboards located approximately 7 miles from the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Quicken Loans Arena.
The first sign features “#23” in maroon with a crown on it on the court with four blue numbers, numbers that just happen to match the Philadelphia 76ers jerseys of Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Dario Saric and Robert Covington. The second billboard several hundred feet farther says “Complete The Process.”
And the third says “#PhillyWantsLeBron.”
The signs seem to be inspired by Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the Academy Award-nominated film starring Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson, in an attempt to convince LeBron James to leave his native Ohio and head to Philadelphia via free agency this summer.
The 76ers will be in town to play the Cavaliers on Thursday night in a nationally televised game, but the team has nothing to do with the billboards, and can’t have anything to do with them, since that would be considered tampering. The billboards, which will be up for three months, were put there by Power Home Remodeling, a company based in Chester, Pennsylvania.
“We’re passionate about Philadelphia,” said Asher Raphael, the company’s co-CEO. “We have an amazing city, it’s the best sports town and it’s an awesome place to live. We think the best athletes should want to play here.”
As a devout Sixers fan living in Los Angeles, let’s hope it works.
Contact Colin Costello at colin@reelchicago.com or follow him on Twitter @colincostello10.
