Scoop commented on Oral Marketing:
Yeah, I was thinking of the ice cream Old Spice ad when I thought of sexist ads.
But yes, the PETA ad was good–and, for them, quite sensible. Nothing radical or farfetched about saying dogs deserve better than to have to spend their lives chained up in a yard.
Somehow I knew the issue of dogs would come up again.
The Michael Vick dog fighting story had been on the backburner for a while, but it was resurrected with Don Banks’ SI article A quarterback in trouble, which DP (and Colin Cowherd and probably everybody else on ESPN Radio) discussed today.
What is it with professional athletes and dogs? Pro athletes exhibit their toughness — physical and mental — on the field of play. That works for me. Do they have to re-assure themselves of their self-worth by owning “macho” breeds? And some don’t just own big dogs, they fight them, too.
An AT&T ad features Green Bay Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk showing off the family Chihuahua. (Dang, that dog is small.) Former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson has mentioned Buttercup, his family’s Yorkshire terrier, on both Fox’s NFL pre-game show and on the DP Show. It’s nice to know that not every man in pro sports has to validate his masculinity with the “right” dog.
When I heard the latest on Vick today I was reminded of a recent entry by Ben Shpigel in the New York Mets blog in the New York Times. Shpigel discovered something about outfielder Shawn Green:
Green explained why he was glad to be traded from the Diamondbacks: “I don’t like vicious team names.” … Green said he preferred more peaceful, classic nicknames. Like the Mets, the Blue Jays, the Cardinals, the Orioles. “You can’t go wrong with birds,” Green said.
Come on, Shawn. The team name is just symbolic. But he does sound like the kind of guy whose family pooch is a cocker spaniel and not a pit bull. Or perhaps they have “A golden retriever. Some big, loving, family dog.”
Green strikes me as a rather atypical pro athlete. He and several Mets players and staff members toured the Holocaust Museum when the team was in D.C. for a series with the Nationals a couple of weeks ago. Relief pitcher Scott Schoeneweis said “Obviously, the museum is important for historical purposes, to detail the atrocities inflicted upon a race, but what’s scary is that it’s a blueprint for things that are going on now, like in Darfur or in South Africa. It’s mind-blowing.” Mind-blowing to me is that they didn’t stay at the team hotel watching SportsCenter and/or playing video games.
The Mets seem somewhat atypical for a professional sports franchise. I mean, there they are: a bunch of jocks, many of them millionaires. In some weird frat house-type male bonding exercise almost all the players on the team shaved their heads before Tuesday’s game in San Francisco. Their longest road trip of the season so far, I guess they just went a little batty. The hairless Green looks like Zinedine Zidane; I hope it grows back fast.
(Of course, after the massive case of induced hair loss they went on to win, earning Tom Glavine his 294th career victory. In the interest of mojo and superstition they might have to get bald for every game Glavine pitches from now on until he notches the big 300.)
For me as a fan, it helps to be able to like the players on my favorite team. As with work and with family, it’s hard to like a jerk. It’s easy to like the Mets. If I were a San Francisco Giants fan I’d be very conflicted over Barry Bonds. A great deal of circumstantial evidence points to him as having used performance-enhancing drugs. Some of it may not have been illegal at the time he took them. (See Mark McGwire and androstenedione.) Personality-wise, Bonds is no Ernie Banks or Cal Ripken, Jr. I can respect someone’s achievements without liking him. But I don’t know if I can respect what Bonds has done on the field.
I’m glad I’m not an Atlanta Falcons fan or a Michael Vick fan. Vick has so much talent, but his career thus far has been one of unachieved potential. The way the Falcons keep changing coaches there’s a question as to whether or not he’ll ever reach his potential with them. Of course, if his off-field incidents continue then he won’t reach his potential in Atlanta or with any other NFL team.
