If any of you are baseball fans…is there some way we can publicly protest this most short-sighted of developments? I mean, Spiderman ads on the fucking bases??? I know it’s getting harder and harder for advertisers to get their message out to large audiences, but…Spiderman ads on the fucking bases??? Quite possibly the stupidest thing I have seen from the marketing cartel in quite some time.
UPDATE: Happy day, they pulled it after one day of public comment! I think that qualifies it as a major fuckup, rather than a smart marketing play.
>Quite possibly the stupidest thing I have seen from the marketing cartel in quite some time.
Obnoxious? Yep. Stupid? Well, you just gave them a free plug, right?
And one more thought on that: public protest, in the end, would just help get people talking about Spiderman. It’d be better to just try to get MLB to silently just not do it.
Actually, the amazing thing about this is that if you look at that base, you realize *no one* will be able to tell what it is. This entire plan was obviously designed to get this sort of outraged publicity campaign – which seems to be working.
By the way, I heard that at least the Yankees have said they will not allow the bases to be displayed during the game – but only before the official game starts (though, they will have the spiderman logo in the on-deck circle).
That’s almost as bad as the temporary forehead tattoo adverts. Will this ever end?!
Meanwhile, back at the ad agency’s HQ, there are high-fives everywhere, as the number of times “Spiderman” is said today goes through the roof. In this case, “stupid” is obviously in the eye of the beholder. Reminds me of the street-chalking campaign for IBM and Linux. The perps were threatened with arrest, but everybody in the industry (and many outside) noticed. IBM got huge value for their ad bucks that day, and Spiderman’s studio is getting theirs today.
How about ads in a urinal?
Here in KC, the seventh innning stretch is now brought to us by Sprint. How nice of them. What’s really sickening is that we have to see all of these ads AFTER paying out huge tax subsidies to most of the teams and stadiums.
I couldn’t agree more. Talk about a short-sighted dilution of the brand. I already don’t like the ads on the outfield fence. I already don’t like the ads on the scoreboard. I already don’t like ads on the player’s uniforms (!) I already hate the stupid ads displayed on TV next to home plate in the centerfield camera view. This is definitely going too far. Like anyone is actually going to watch a movie because they saw an ad on a base while watching a game. Totally and completely tacky.
Even if they don’t display the ads on the bases, the idea is already working. It’s all MARKETING strategy.