ss_blog_claim=c22f2396d967610d23cd2c7bb7fcb64c


Advertising Commentary Best TV Commercial
Funny Commercials Commercials Online Advertising Commentary
Marketing Advertising Agency Creative Agency Advertising Review Advertising Commentary
Best TV Commercial Advertising Jobs
About BMA
Advertising Jobs
RSS

Companies need a place to spend their marketing dollars, and Barry Bonds aint it

Filed under: Archived Posts — by Mack Collier at 8:10 pm on Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Bank of America said forget it. Pepsi said they’ll have to wait and see. Home Depot said that if anyone can prove that he’s not a cheater, that they’ll think about it. The number of big-name corporations getting in line to promote Barry Bonds’ breaking the all-time home run record aint too long these days. Which sucks for the MLB, because they desperately need all the help they can get in reviving interest in a sport that has for decades billed itself as ‘America’s Pastime’. In actuality the only thing saving baseball from slipping to the 4th most popular pro sport spot is the fact that we don’t have enough ice here for curling. Attendance has been down at almost every ballpark in the league for 1 or 2 decades. The last time anyone cared about baseball was in 1998 when the country was mesmerized by Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire chasing the single-season HR record. Ironically, it now looks like they were both juicing at the time. BTW did you know Barry broke McGwire’s record for most HRs in a season a couple of years later? Did you care? Exactly. And no, no one defecated in my Cheerios this morning, but I do have a head-cold that’s degraded me to making a continous low drone that’s akin to a milk-cow with a bursting udder. Maybe that’s put me in a pissy mood, or maybe it’s hearing about companies like Home Depot and Pepsi’s internal marketing struggles as they try to decide if they want to spend money on promotional campaigns to give Barry a ‘Nice juicing there, big guy!’ slap on the backside as he tops Hank Aaron’s all-time HR record. Is this really the best way for these major corporations to spend their marketing dollars? I’ll let you contemplate that question as myself and my sinuses go back to mooing in the background.

1 Comment »

822

Comment by J.D.

March 30, 2006 @ 5:43 am

I think I’ve got the solution for MLB. They need to send all of their marketing executives back down to the minors.

I mean that seriously. While teams in the majors can’t seem to fill a stadium, most minor league teams (at least here in the South) appear to be doing well.

The reason? It’s the anti-Barry Bonds. In the minors, there aren’t megastars. Oh sure, there are future ones, and every once in a while, a fan might get to see Mark Prior pitching 17 strikeouts in his last game before the Cubs threw him into the MLB spotlight, but for the most part, minor league baseball is all about the game and all about the fan.

There’s just something about the relationship between regional fans and their double-A or triple-A teams. And there’s something about being at the park. Number one, the prices are exponentially smaller. Number two, quite often the host stadium takes more of an interest in the fans than a bigger ballpark would allow.

I think this whole Barry Bonds fiasco is just going to prove that baseball is not about superstars. Before the current era of superstar driven baseball, it was the team that engendered the love and drew the fans. It was the spunky second baseman that came to play everyday, the shortstop who would play hurt if he had to, the right fielder who showed up to the stadium in a beat-up truck rather than a limo, and the hitter that could hit it low or bunt into a sacrifice, rather than trying to pull the ball out of the park every at-bat. It was the ace pitcher who would sign autographs gladly before each game and shake hands after. It was the player who lifted weights and didn’t juice. It’s the home team taking the field, accompanied by three foot Little Leaguers who look up at their heroes while the National Anthem is being played. But most of all, it was about the fans, the peanuts, and the cracker jacks, not caring if they ever went back home, because they were at a place where they could be one with the world’s most perfect game, their cares and worries gone for a couple of hours while men in uniform played a game symbolic of what made our country great.

I still sort of get that when I go see the Memphis Redbirds, the Chattanooga Lookouts, the Birmingham Barons, or the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx. There are some things wrong, but it’s the closest I can get.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.