Tag: marketing

Categories
Boston Celtics

Hard to decide which sucks more: the Celtics or the Post Office


It used to be a privilege to be on the postage stamp. Now you can basically put anything on a stamp no matter how lowly or mundane. Which of course explains why the Boston Celtics are selling custom Celtics stamps on their website.

The stamps will feature Paul Pierce, Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Delonte West and Gerald Green. That’s the worst stamp collection in the history of philately. (That’s our big word of the day… it means… stamp collection.) Larry Bird is not coming through that mail slot, fans. Kevin McHale is not coming through that slot, and Robert Parish is not coming through that mail slot.

No word on whether Danny Ainge will pay 53 cents for a 39 cent stamp based on upside.

Links:
[Boston Herald]: Celts, Pierce putting stamp on U.S. mail

Categories
College Basketball

Does Kevin Durant already have a Nike shoe deal on the table?



Already sporting Nike

If there’s any question whether Kevin Durant is going to go pro this season, a phone call from Kobe might have sealed the deal. According to Chip Brown of the Dallas Morning News, Kobe Bryant called Nike on behalf of Nike to pitch a shoe deal between $30M to $50M. (“Hey Kevin, I can’t wait till you come into the league so I can elbow you in the head. Oh, by the way, Phil Knight wants to give you $50M. “)

Based on the NBA rookie salary scale, Durant will make about $11M-$12.5M his first three years in the league. And here comes Nike throwing three times that just for promoting a shoe. It’s not LeBron’s $90M deal but it’s almost a guarantee that he will leave Texas.

We think they should let players get their own shoe deals in college. This way they won’t have to leave early so that they risk injury in the college game. What would Rick Barnes rather have? A team wide shoe deal for the Longhorns or Kevin Durant for 3 more years?

Links:
[Dallas Morning News]: Sneaker deal could be deciding factor if Durant is one-and-done

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends: The Worldwide Runner Up in Online Sports!



The new king

Duh duh duh… duh duh duh. It seems that FoxSports has overtook ESPN.com in the Nielsen NetRatings. The 800 lb gorilla has been stepped over. This story is getting a ton of play in the blogosphere because bloggers hate ESPN. While Fox Sports, The Sporting News, and especially AOL Sports embraced bloggers, ESPN gave them the finger.

This news that ESPN.com has been dethroned might have been the reason why ESPN.com’s Editor in Chief was relegated to a lesser role yesterday. Seems that the bad karma associated with stealing scoops finally caught up with them. Now if only Versus would get their shit together, we might have an alternative to Sportscenter and Stu “Boo Yah” Scott.

In other news…

[Techdirt]: Why Blacking Out March Madness Online Doesn’t Make Sense

[SignOnSanDiego]: when a Terrell Owens or Michael Vick or Antonio Gates jersey is sold, each of the 32 NFL teams gets about 11 cents.

[isporty]: Top 10 Dirty Sports Names (How is Lucious Pusey not #1?)

[Farther Off the wall]: Which Dodgers monkey/intern designed this tshirt?

And finally, we have two random items. First is this excellent video of Ricky Gervais being brillaint. And second is this tidbit from the New York Post: “New York Ranger Brendan Shanahan was blindfolded and ball-gagged as trannies danced around him.” Sounds like a great time.

Categories
College Basketball

Greg Oden’s summer league coach conveniently decides to start sports agency


Mike Conley Sr. thinks that Greg Oden is going pro after this season. How else would you explain his decision to start a sports agency called Mac Management Group? Conley Sr. has known Oden since the sixth grade and coached him in summer basketball. In addition to Oden, Conley Sr. also coached Josh McRoberts of Duke and Buckeyes Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook.


I’m not being presumptuous at all,” Conley Sr. said. “Getting into this business is not just for those individuals. I’m competitive. I want to be the best at what I do, and that’s not going to stop when I enter the sports management business.
“Hopefully I can attract and share a vision with some of the athletes I know, but also with others and move their careers forward.

Translation: I’ve known Oden all his life. If I can get him to sign with me, then I have a golden goose.

Here’s the best part:


I’ve negotiated a lot of different things. Almost everything in life is negotiated,” Conley Sr. said. “You have to know what it is you’re negotiating. You have to know when something’s a good deal. Outside of being educated about the process, the same principles exist, and that’s putting both parties in a win-win situation.

Hey listen, Mike, just because you negotiated down the price of your plasma TV at Best Buy doesn’t mean you can go up against the sharks in the NBA front offices. LeBron James fired a real agent and hired three friends and they turned out to be bumbling idiots.

Run Greg Run.

Links:
[Indy Star]: Conley Sr. starting sports representation business

Categories
General Sports

For relaxing times, make it Hulk Hogan time

So, what do you do when you’re a washed up wrestler who is currently bringing home the bacon by starring in a dumb reality show? Well, if you’re the Hulkster you take off to the other side of the globe, attach your image to a crappy commercial and sing an off key lullaby in your underwear for Bigflow. Geez, guess he never expected this to make it back to America. The only question left is, “Whatcha gonna do when the whole world is pointing and laughing at you, brother!”

Links:

[Adfreak.com]: Hogan knows best in Japanese commercial

Categories
Fantasy Baseball

Gotta love the random Geddy Lee appearance

Geddy Lee is one of the most underrated front men of all time. And it’s a little curious that he’s in this ESPN fantasy baseball commercial but it’s pretty damn amusing. Yeah yeah, we’re a little late on this but watching tourney coverage has seared this commercial into our brains. Any guesses as to who is doing the ghost singing for Kruk?

Gotta love Peter Gammons with the long hair. And is that Erin Andrews’ breasseses on the right? Oh and we’ll reserve commentary on John Kruk — we’re sure that the unimaginative bloggers hanging from Deadspin’s nuts fell all over themselves trying to be the first to make a “with leather” reference.

And as luck would have it, we just came across this comprehensive list of ESPN Sportscenter Commercials from Chicks Dig the Long Ball.

Categories
MLB General

Odds and Ends: Are you looking at George’s crotch again?


Well folks, there’s no other way to explain it. Apparently men (or at least the men in this study) are fixated on crotches. Some might say that we “respect the cock“.

A study by Jakob Nielsen to track how different people look at web pages came up with some unexpected results. According to the data, men tend to study the crotch and the face while women look only at the face. This also happens when the image was of an animal too. This was discovered on the American Kennel Club site. We couldn’t even make this stuff up. (via Can’t Stop the Bleeding)

In other news…

[Chicks Dig the Long Ball]: Mascot Madness

[Yahoo]: Pete Rose thinks fans would be elated if baseball reintated him because his name is synonymous with baseball. Actually Pete, your name is synonymous with gambling.

[Leave the Man Alone]: The dumbest theory we’ve heard in a while

[Steroid Nation]: Evander Holyfield finally gets Tyson back for biting his ear

[Awful Announcing]: ESPN to televise this year’s Rock paper Scissors championship

Categories
MLB General

MLB loses its erection


Ahhh the last time we’ll be able to make a baseball ED joke and post a picture of Raffy Palmeiro. Viagra is ending its five-year-old endorsement deal with Major League Baseball. The overwhelming reason is that changes in pharmacy guidelines meant that drug companies couldn’t advertise in prime-time anymore and that took away most of the value of the deal. However, the leagues have also been growing increasinly wary of advertising sexual dysfunction drugs in a family friendly atmosphere.


Sports properties saw dollar signs, and there was a land rush,” said Michael Neuman, CEO and founder of Amplify Sports and Entertainment, New York, who had worked on marketing programs for a variety of pharmaceutical brands from Pfizer, Amgen and GlaxoSmithKline. “But when you had ads talking about four-hour erections during NFL games, people from ownership on down started questioning the association.

Links:
[Sports Business Journal]: (Subscription) ED era wanes as Viagra exits MLB deal

Categories
College Basketball

Dick Vitales calls Joakim Noah…


Now that the tournament is officially underway with Selection Sunday, get ready for the onslaught of marketing that accompanies it. In addition to the dumbest television commercials ever produced (remember Applebees popcorn shrimp), companies will be trying to capture your attention online too.

First up is Dick Vitale and Digiorno Pizza with their “send a message” campaign where you can customize a message for a friend and have it email or phone them. Well, here’s a little fun with Dicky V.

Links:
[SC]: Cell phones… they’re AWESOME BABY!

Categories
Washington Wizards

Gilbert Arenas’ new commercial

Adidas is perpetually trying to catch up with Nike, not just in sales but in their ad campaigns.  While Nike has always set the bar with great commercials, Adidas usually gives us stuff that doesn’t make much sense and isn’t very good.  Impossible is nothing?  Uhhhh…whatever.  

Anyway, Adidas is set to launch a whole new ad campaign featuring athletes and drawing… we guess to spotlight how creative athletes are or something.  Our favorite NBA nutjob Gilbert Arenas has a commercial in the campaign and while it’s designed to show how he overcame adversity to become “the rock star of the NBA“, it mostly just highlights that Gilbert can’t paint for shit.

Links:
[Ad Freak]: Art is therapy for athletes in Adidas ads