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Oh, what a tangled web they weaved.
Whether you’re purist or progressive, Major League Baseball’s decision to shill for Spider-Man dialed up debate in a hurry – and public reaction was both swift and emphatic.
For the first time in professional baseball history, bases, pitching-mound rubbers and on-deck circles were to be decorated to promote a movie: Sony Corporation’s “Spider-Man 2.” That is, they were before public outcry forced MLB officials to do an about-face.
Teams were going to adorn first, second and third base bags with a 71/2-inch Spider-Man 2 logos featuring black-and-yellow webbing against a bright red background promoting the movie and its release date (June 30). A smaller, similar logo would have appeared on the pitching rubber.
The deal, which would have paid big market teams such as the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees $100,000 and smaller market teams like Kansas City about $50,000, also called for larger logos in the on-deck circles, stadium signage, movie trailers (promos) on electronic scoreboards, Spider-man figures climbing light towers, and giveaways of promotional movie items. Everything but the logos on the bases and mounds is still set to go.
“It’s time to acknowledge that [MLB commissioner] Bud Selig has no respect for fans and it’s time for him to go,” said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a non-profit organization trying to “keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere and prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy.”
“He’s not just the manager of a business, he’s the trustee of a legacy, but I don’t think there’s a square angstrom anywhere in baseball that he wouldn’t consider selling to the highest bidder,” Ruskin added. “And Americans are increasingly angry about the over-commercialization of baseball and every nook and cranny of our lives and culture.”
It’s that kind of reaction that prompted Selig to scrap the base and pitching rubber logos idea. All the other promotional aspects will remain.
Ruskin also disagreed with MLB’s decision to have players on the Yankees and Tampa Bay teams wear three-inch patches on their shirt sleeves and logos on their batting helmets for companies like Ricoh last month during a season-opening series in Japan.
“For me, its our national pastime and this really degrades and cheapens it,” said Ruskin. “I think it takes the joy out of it for those who love the game.”
MLB President Bob Dupuy said having decorative bases doesn’t really have an effect on the game within the foul lines. “The game itself won’t be affected,” he told the Wall Street Journal this week.
“I’m a purist, but I’m also a realist,” said University of Maine baseball coach Paul Kostacopoulos. “I don’t think it’s a maniacal thing for baseball to do, however, I do think there’s a point where enough is enough and maybe they [MLB] figured this was that point. I think they went a bit too far.”
NBC Sports and HBO broadcaster Bob Costas was quoted as saying base ads reflect “baseball’s schizoid relationship with its past. On the one hand they sell history whenever it suits them, and on the other hand, they disrespect it.”
Team participation in the promotion, which was to start June 11 and last for one or more games, was voluntary, but all 15 teams hosting weekend series that week had agreed to participate before reversing course. Initially, teams were leery about taking part, but as one team’s marketing vice-president said, if it’s good enough for Major League Baseball, it’s good enough for them.
The Yankees reportedly weren’t going to use the base logos. Other teams were curtailing the promotional scale.
Commercial Alert is still urging a boycott of all Sony products by consumers to protest the baseball promotion. Ruskin says his organization, whose advisory board is chaired by Ralph Nader, has more than 2,500 members in all 50 states.
Teams, if they choose, still have the green light to place ads on bases and pitching mounds during pregame activities.
“I do consider myself a baseball traditionalist, but I also recognize that things change and sometimes they have to change for the better, but I’m glad people spoke up because you could have ignored this and maybe that would have led to worse things,” said Kostacopoulos. “It’s sort of a check-and-balance relationship in a free market of ideas, and it worked here.”
What also worked was the promotion, even better than ad executives hoped. Although Sony won’t be getting the base and pitching rubber logos, it got much, much more. The publicity, debate and attention generated after word leaked out about this promotion has created enormous advance buzz for Spider-Man 2 – almost two months before it opens – and all for free.
It seems Irish author and playwright Brendan Behan nailed it when he said there is no such thing as bad publicity.
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