Columbia Sportswear Takes Aim at Doomer Tech Bros and Their Bunkers

Fresh off the heels of the anti-billionaire sentiment we saw become a big issue during the midterm elections (and a ballot issue in California), Columbia Sportswear launched a pretty clever campaign in the Bay Area promising the payoff of a bunker to one person who shows real world skills worthy of the safe space:

“Since the beginning of time, people have predicted the end of the world. I don’t really buy into all that stuff,” [Columbia Sportswear chairman and CEO Tim Boyle] says in an associated two-minute promotional video. “But since Columbia helps protect you from nature’s worst, we figured, better safe than sorry. So we’ve created the Don’t Panic Room. A real-life, 40-foot survival bunker that’s engineered for whatever. Equipped with lots of Columbia gear to keep you warm when things get ugly. The tech bros may already have their bunkers, but they don’t have the skills to survive outdoors. Try starting a campfire with crypto or fly fishing with microchips. Good luck with that.”

This is the sort of campaign every marketing student should be forced to study. It’s timely, visual, engaging, deeply on brand and something that it would be hard to imagine almost any other brand doing.