The Atlantic

American Marketing Casts Its Shadow

The “Great American Eclipse” is a showcase for great (and sometimes not great) American branding efforts.
Source: Yomiuri Yomiuri / Reuters

Earlier this month, cylinder-shaped packages containing posters depicting a solar eclipse arrived at the desks of several journalists. In the illustration, the black disk of the moon obscures most of the sun, leaving a curved slice of sunlight shining against the darkness. There, smack in the middle of the yellow crescent, is a familiar blue sticker usually worn by grocery-store produce.

Chiquita had turned the upcoming eclipse into an ad for bananas.

It was only a matter of time. Brands love building marketing campaigns to. Next week’s solar eclipse certainly fits that definition. Tens of millions of people across the United States are expected to look skyward as the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, coating parts of the country in total darkness. Hotels and campgrounds have been booked for months, special eclipse glasses are selling fast, and people are preparing for watch parties up and down the path of totality, from Oregon to South Carolina. There’s. Actor Steve Martin nicely summed up the hype this way:

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