“Nothing surprises me these days,” said New York Mets manager Art Howe on Spiderman 2’s Major League Baseball sponsorship. “As long as it doesn’t affect the play on the field, I don’t have a problem with it. It’s just a sign of the times.” That sums up many an attitude on the inevitable proliferation of advertising these days.
McCann Erikson has put a deal together with its clients Major League Baseball and Spiderman 2 distributor Columbia Pictures. The deal calls for the Spiderman 2 logo to be plastered all over most Major League Baseball fields as well as the actual bases over the weekend on June 11 through 13.
While this is a fantastic advertising tactic by McCann Erikson, it’s also cause for concern over the sanctity of the sport. Former baseball commissioner and former Columbia Pictures president Fay Vincent said, “I guess it’s inevitable, but it’s sad. I’m old-fashioned. I’m a romanticist. I think the bases should be protected from this.”
Baseball’s SVP for Marketing and Advertising Jacqueline Parkes dissed the old fart saying, “We are trying to reach people 6 to 18. He is past that category in all respects.”
