ESPN’s Baseball Tonight promo gave me nightmares.
I’ve ranted about ESPN’s (lack of) dedication to being a true sports network before. Last night I saw something straight out of the Spiderman – MLB chronicles of cross promotion gone wrong as I was trying to fall asleep. They have a spot airing that is a cross-promotion of Baseball Tonight & the new Fantastic Four movie.
A description of the ad:
ESPN has teamed with the film on a promotion for its Baseball Tonight series. The commercial has anchor Karl Ravech and analyst John Kruk playing in the ESPN studio with Silver Surfer and Thing action figures. Later, the Thing is playing with bobblehead of Ravech and Kruk, knocking off the head of Kruk’s bobblehead.
I couldn’t sleep knowing grown men like Ravech & Kruk play with action figures of comic book characters. I understand cross-promotion, but Baseball Tonight & Fantastic Four have nothing in common. What’s next Stephen A. Smith dressed as a pirate on the set of NBA Shootaround for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie?? I’m just glad that they didn’t have Peter Gammons make a joke of himself.
Oh where art thou classic “This Is Sportcenter” ads? (YouTube!)
I think I’ll watch one of my favs to help me fall asleep at work today:
[youtube]lhYxLd8O9lA[/youtube] Sphere: Related Content
Shake-up imminent in Baltimore | baseball said,
Wrote on June 18, 2007 @ 7:34 pm
[…] ESPN has teamed with the film on a promotion for its Baseball Tonight series. The commercial has anchor Karl Ravech and analyst John Kruk playing in the ESPN studio with Silver Surfer and Thing action figures. … …Sportzia More […]