At the time Hon offered his free advice, brand dilution was making headlines because Nike had announced it was suing Lil Nas X and the art collective MSCHF for that very violation. Without the sports giant's approval, the marketing-savvy artists had taken 666 pairs of Nike Air Max 97 running shoes, inserted drops of human blood into their soles, renamed the sneakers "Satan Shoes," and sold them for $1,018 a pair. It was all part of the promotional rollout for Lil Nas's blockbuster single "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)," whose video featured the singer giving a lap dance to the devil. Nike claimed that Satan Shoes were "likely to cause confusion and dilution" for its brand, since consumers would assume the altered sneakers had something to do with the company. The lawsuit played directly into Lil Nas's hands by generating a boatload of free publicity, and Nike quickly settled. (As I type this, I am realizing that this is a terrible analogy for my situation: it casts me as a giant litigious multinational and Other Naomi as Lil Nas X, who is a genius.)

XREF: A real-world case study in brand dilution law that also became a marketing masterstroke — relevant to anyone writing about intellectual property or viral marketing.

Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, loc. 152