Spider-Sense Tingling…
It says… no ads on bases!!
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, a million times no.
Major League Baseball and Columbia Pictures want to advertise the Spiderman 2 movie on all bases and on-deck circles for a weekend next month. The principles in the deal say, I swear to God, "it's for the kids." As if there wasn't a ridiculous amount of money tied up in pro sports. I understand that there are ads all over the field, and the sport is a business and needs to make money to pay the ridiculous salaries we demand go to the guys who can hit a ball with a stick more than three out of every 10 times (the owners are doing alright, too). But honestly, we should be able to draw a line, saying "it's important to us as human beings to not have every square inch of every part of our lives involved financially with big corporations." How long until you can shave a point off your mortgage by painting the (windowless, of course) side of your house with a bank logo? I personally think pro sports have gone past the point of decency by selling naming rights to parks and arenas. Philadelphia just replaced Veterans Stadium, named in honor of those who fought for America's freedom, with Citizen's Bank Ballpark. What does that tell the kids?
No one thinks this is a good idea except for a few $elect interest$. Whose opinions will win out? Do I need to ask?
UPDATE: Rob Neyer suggests boycott June 11-13 ("Spiderman 2 Weekend"). I'm down. More ESPN stuff here, and the Yankees try fighting evil instead of embodying it for once.
UPDATE 2: Due, I can only assume, to the power of A Cry for Help's scathing reaction, MLB has decided they "do not want to detract from the fan's experience in any way." Good for you guy$.
May 6th, 2004 at 6:33 pm
Spiderman 2 “Weekend” is June 30-July 5th.
I’ll take your name off the “let’s go see Spider-Man 2″ moving mailing list.
And honestly….the ads are so small…who cares?
May 6th, 2004 at 6:42 pm
Who are they trying to advertise to, the players? If I’m in the park or watching the game on TV, I’m going to be wondering who is bleeding on all the bases, not if I should see Spiderman.
May 6th, 2004 at 6:46 pm
OK, “MLB/Spideman 2 Weekend” is June 11-13.
And that’s exactly the problem! Next year when someone wants to cover the entire base with an ad, it’ll be “and honestly, there were already ads on the bases, these are just bigger” and then when Scotts fertilizer wants to cut and ad into the outfield grass it’ll be “and honestly, there’s already ads all over the infield” and so on. It’s time to take a stand and say NO MORE!
May 7th, 2004 at 4:10 pm
Anyone have TIVO? How much does it cost?
Garris