Couch Sessions lays out the emerging argument for the demise of hip hop as a marketing darling, of sorts, including the best description to date of Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s current Sprite campaign:
This week, Sprite abandoned its hip-hop ad campaign in favor of…well, damn, I don’t even know what they’re doing now. AdAge says: Five cinema spots (four 30-second and one 60-second) feature creative that rapidly cuts from one bizarre scene to the next with special codes and visual rewards in between scenes. "Welcome to ‘SubLYMONal’ advertising," declares a voice over for each spot. "For best results, do not blink." WTF?

Couch Sessions rolls together Sprite & Reebok’s actions, Soundscan numbers and hope, yes, hope, to declare the "beginnings of a downward trend in hip-hop marketing":
With hip-hop broken up into so many sub-genres, niche marketing will come strong later this year. Without the mighty dollar in the way, people will stop chasing trends and begin to make real music again.  Or at least we hope.

Well, country music shows us that there’s plenty of riches without being perceived as the top genre.  And, if musicians care, they make real music.  Less money won’t mean more good musicians.

But I’m all for optimism!