Not too long ago I decided to send a link of my blog's comments on Nike, about the opportunity that they are missing by ignoring squash, to their corporate office. Just for kicks.
So I experienced a little flutter of excitement when, a week or so later, I received a note in my in-box from Nike itself. Whoopee, I thought, this is great, finally I can start a conversation with the many-headed hydra of sports marketing!
But it turns out the email was from their 'Outside Idea Submissions Team,' and was a computer-generated response to my original email.
You are receiving this automatically-generated message because you have requested a copy of Nike's Outside Idea Submission Guidelines and Agreement. If you have already received the Idea Submission documents and have a question that is not answered by the Idea Submission Guidelines, or if you have a question about a pending submission, please reply to this message, type the word "Question" in the subject line, and type your question in the body of the message. You will receive a reply within ten business days.
The email then goes on to warn me that ideas submitted to them should have a utility patent or one pending. Uh, thanks for the advice, Nike.
