Blocked chain: Ritson puts freshly minted NFTs up for sale after auction fails to flush out bidders; stance softening on marketing's latest shiny toy?
'Wednesday', 'Thursday' and 'Friday': Mark Ritson's three Non-Fungible Tokens.
Three selfies of Mark Ritson sitting on a toilet are up for sale after failing to attract buyers at auction. The professor had a single bidder for one of the original works, with a floor price of $1,900, but they pulled out last minute. Despite first-hand experience, Ritson remains "essentially an NFT moron, which I'm very comfortable with", though says NFTs may actually have some tactical value for marketing after all.
What you need to know:
- Mark Ritson created and minted three Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) for a column trashing the technology as “pointless”. He very nearly sold one for A$1900, until a bidder pulled out. Now they're up for sale.
- Ritson said while NFTs are currently tactical gimmickry and not worth "all the shit marketers losing their load over them", he does actually "see some value in NFTs".
Token effort
Mark Ritson is not a fan of bandwagons and he rarely, if ever, hops on one. It is an understatement to say he is not on the Non-Fungible Token wagon: They are a “pointless fad”, “idiot magnets”, “nonsensical tactical futuristic toys”, and “exactly the kind of obscure technical catnip that our industry simply cannot resist”. That's just from one Marketing Week column.
Nevertheless, in late January, he created – or ‘minted’ – three NFTs that he named after different days of the week. Wednesday is “a study in postmodern adult contemplation”. Thursday is an “intimate look at modern masculinity”. Friday is “moving and challenging at the same time”. All are self portraits taken while sitting on a toilet, and were put up for an online auction that finished last night.
Two - 'Thursday' and 'Friday' - had starting bids of 1.1 ETH (roughly A$3900) while as of yesterday afternoon, 'Wednesday' had one unidentified bidder offering A$1900. Unfortunately, the bidder appears to have withdrawn at the last moment.
And so they remain up for sale - anyone with an account can make an offer. "Who knows what the fuck is going on?" he said last night. "Not me."
The bidder: I was just trolling
Mi3 tracked down the sole bidder on one of Ritson's NFTs, who asked to not be identified.
"I had no intention of actually buying this fine piece of art, the bids are not binding and it's just me trolling back," he said.
"I thought Prof Ritson's stunt was excellent – highlighting the irrational exuberance of the space by using and creating on the same platforms – until I read his piece in Marketing Week, which, much like Prof [Scott] Galloway's piece on NFTs, just showed us how little marketers, bullish or bearish on NFTs, understand the underlying mechanics in crypto.
"A good reminder to avoid marketers for solid point of views on new technology: Whether they're selling scammy NFT projects to big brands or feeding their own marketing funnel by counter positioning on the topic."
Ritson: 'an NFT moron'
Has the experience changed Ritson's views on NFTs?
"No. If anything it has confirmed things further for me," he said. "I do see some value In NFTs. Right now they are a cool, pointless, but cool little tactic. [Down] the track they have potential importance in the metaverse. But neither justifies all the shit marketers losing their load over them."
Asked if he had built-in royalties to his NFTs, enabling him to take a cut should they be sold and resold, Ritson conceded he hadn't been able to work that bit out.
"I literally have no idea what I'm doing. I'm still unclear how I managed to get as far as I did with my three "pieces". I'm still not entirely clear if I've sold one or not. I'm essentially an NFT moron, which I'm very comfortable with.
"If I have sold one for $2000, and again it's not clear at this point, I'm going to spend it on booze before Mrs R finds out and makes me spend [it] on something we need."
