Lil Nas X forms blood marketing bond with skateboarding legend Tony Hawk
Rapper Lil Nas X has teamed up with skateboarding legend Tony Hawk to showcase his skating skills (sort of) and prove that there’s no bad blood between the two after they both dipped into the ‘blood marketing’ trend – and garnered very different reactions.
‘Nah WE tweakin’: Lil Nas X and Tony Hawk prove there’s no bad blood between the pair
Earlier this week the Industry Baby rapper called out the disparity in how their consecutive crimson campaigns were received, subsequently making the phrase ‘nah he tweakin’ go viral.
Blood, sweat and tears
Last year Lil Nas X was embroiled in a lawsuit with Nike, and faced backlash on social media, over the release of his ‘Satan Shoes’ – a collaborative project with art collective MSCHF on 666 pairs of sneakers that each contained a drop of human blood in the soles.
Not happy its Air Max 97s had been modified, Nike filed a high-profile trademark infringement lawsuit against the rapper, which resulted in the shoes being recalled.
In a similar vein, Hawk recently tapped into this trend and donated his blood to water company Liquid Death to be used in the limited-edition ‘Hawk Blood Deck’ boards.
The marketing tactics are similar, but the reaction has been noticeably different, with Hawk’s bloody skateboard now showing as sold out online.
Blood brothers?
“Now that Tony Hawk has released skateboards with his blood painted on them, and there was no public outrage, are y’all ready to admit y’all were never actually upset over the blood in the shoes? And maybe [you] were mad for some other reason?” the Montero singer tweeted last week.
After pointing out the double standard, Lil Nas X and Hawk have used this as an opportunity to capitalize on the social media moment.
In a recent video shared online, the two can be seen at a skatepark together, with the rapper captioning the post ‘nah WE tweakin’ – signifying that there are no hard feelings.
— MONTERO (@LilNasX) August 30, 2021
Lil Nas X is no stranger to using social media to market his brand and has been dubbed the ‘King of Memes’ for his efforts.