CBS is beginning to head down an interesting path in its ad placement for the SuperBowl. They have turned down two “gay-themed” ads so far: one is from male-male oriented dating site ManCrunch.com and the other is from web-hosting service GoDaddy.com. The ManCrunch ad shows two men watching a football game (presumably the SuperBowl) and munching chips. Their hands touch as they both reach for a crisp, and suddenly they can’t hold back any longer–they smooch! The GoDaddy ad is more surprising…it does feature a flamboyant ex-football star, but it also features women in lingerie. Doesn’t that usually get any and all content a free pass? (It does for American Apparel)
In any case, both ads were rejected on the grounds that they don’t meet CBS’s content standards for the SuperBowl and they might offend people. For ManCrunch, the broadcasting company went one further and claimed that they couldn’t verify the firm’s credit (the rejection letter is up on Scribd as well as being reproduced on the Mashable article). However, it DOES look like they’re going to air the Tim Tebow pro-life ad, which is guaranteed to offend at least some people…which people is it okay to offend, and which have to be kept happy? CBS is sending a pretty clear message about what audience bracket they value, which is fine–First Amendment and all that. But still, what about all the gay-friendly sports fans? Seems like a bit of a business mistake to alienate such a vocal consumer group…
The NBA has followed in the footsteps of the NFL and the SEC and banned athletes from using social media during events. From 45 minutes before the event until they’ve finished their team responsibilities, team-related personnel are not allowed to use ANY KIND OF SOCIAL MEDIA.
I’ve been harping on what a bad idea this is for AGES, so I won’t rant about it again today…all I have to say is:
I freely admit I don’t golf. I don’t watch golf. I don’t even play miniature, putt-putt golf (unless it’s somebody’s birthday).
I know NOTHING about golf, except that old guys like to dress up in what would ordinarily be considered embarrassing clothes and spend hours chasing a teeny-tiny ball around with a metal stick. And most of that I learned from Robin Williams (warning–NSFW language).
But I do know social media. And the PGA Tour gets it.
For the pga.com coverage of the PGA Championships, they’re using the Justin.tv/UStream model of streaming coverage combined with live chat. You can sign in using your Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace credentials and chat with other viewers. You can chat with everyone watching, or just your friends on whatever social network you signed in with. I realize it’s not a new or complicated idea, but it’s just nice to see it popping up in such an Old Boys’ Club as golf. This is the group that most people see as LEAST involved with social media and the new communications forms popping up on the web, and yet they understand that being able to watch the matches and talk about it with other fans is the ultimate goal here. For that, the PGA gets serious brownie points. Pompom hats aside.
So the question for other sports (and any other traditional media-based business), if a bunch of old guys in plaid pants and fuzzy hats get it, why don’t you?
Nike has innovated again! This time with Lance Armstrong and the Tour De France. The two entities have teamed up with the development of Chalkbot - a robot messaging system of sorts. This robot lets users send 4o character long messages, texts, emails or tweets to a server and then relayed to the Chalkbot. Then throughout the course of the Tour, the messages are PAINTED (yes painted) on the streets that the cyclists travel on!
According to our friends at vanskengroups blog “culturebuzz” The Chalkbot was developed by Deeplocal and StandardRobot for the Nike Livestrong campaign, created together with Lance Armstrong in support of the brand’s cancer foundation.
It allows fans to disseminate their messages of hope and encouragement, as well as joining the fight against cancer.
Simon Prestidge UK Marketing Director at Nike was quoted as saying: “We don’t do advertising any more. […] We need to become part of people’s lives and digital allows us to do that.” We’re sure you get it, the cause is laudable and the concept is truly innovative.
So visit wearyellow.com and/or text LIVESTRONG followed by your message to 36453 to participate in this very innovative campaign.
Come on Tony and his team of crazy MLB lawyers and advisors…
Why the hell would you sue twitter? just the stupidity of lawyers and people who don’t understand that technology isn’t the culprit, its dumbass people…
Tony - I’ll give you that it honestly sucks that someone is “impersonating you” but why not do what all other celebs and others do and “ask twitter to take it down” and all will be good…
Not that hard? Pick up the phone or email them and explain the situation? if they don’t take care of it, then by all means- sue your ass off…but a bit of diplomacy goes along way in this type of environment.
So hate this kind of stuff!!! Greed is always at the heart of this kinda stuff….And we hear Bad publicity is as good as any…It’s BS…
Have some dignity and make a concerted effort to recityf the situation before you go around suing people and screwing up a good thing….
Have to show one of the most pertinent and thought provoking comments that @KW2P posted:
“”What’s next? Suing Yahoo because you don’t like the content of an email you received?
If I make a telephone call, impersonate La Russa, and do some harm, you don’t sue the telephone company. Or maybe he would….
I hope the judge throws it out for the frivolous suit it is and makes La Russa responsible for all costs.
This nonsense is another example of why companies like Twitter, Yahoo, Google, should get out of the United States and base
themselves in countries where swollen-head celebrities can’t bring frivolous laws”
Lakers haters take your seats and embrace yourself. Maybe you should just take a vacation because not only is the premiere of Kobe’s documentary this Saturday, but the Lakers are going to crush the Rockets on Sunday. It’s a big weekend for a few NBA teams, with some Game 7s determining who will move on and a unique feature on one of the NBA greats.
I have faith the Lakers will demolish the Rockets at home on Sunday and that Orlando does the same to Boston. But before all this happens, the premiere of Spike Lee’s Kobe Bryant documentary, “Kobe Doin’ Work: A Day in the Life” airs tomorrow, 5/16 at 5 PST on ESPN. The footage was taken in April of this year at the Staples Center when the Lakers were matched up with the Spurs and it was one impressive Lake Show.
On another note, did anyone tweet with Derek Fisher in Game 3 when he was suspended due to a foul in the previous, very physical Game 2? Great use of Twitter by the NBA, but if you check out his page now, he hasn’t tweeted since then. Although his last post is “This is the 1st and last in game post…” it will be disappointing to Twitter members who find D. Fish on Twitter only to see his last tweet was May 8th. I don’t blame Derek, he’s part of the Lakers and they are all great…except for Walton but that’s another post. Someone needs to figure out the purpose of his page now. Should D. Fish be more active on Twitter, remove the page soon, leave it as is or cancel the account? What do you think? You don’t need to let us know that the Lakers are going to be the 2010 champs, we already know this, but what do you think should happen to Fisher’s Twitter Page?
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But before all this happens, the premiere of Spike Lee’s Kobe Bryant documentary, “Kobe Doin’ Work: A Day in the Life” airs tomorrow, 5/16 at 5 PST on ESPN. The footage was taken in April of this year at the Staples Center when the Lakers were matched up with the Spurs and it was one impressive Lake Show.