My new favorite baseball player – at least for this week – is Alex Call of the Los Angeles Dodgers. I’ll have to admit that I don’t really know Alex Call from Alex Trebek and I had to look up what his jersey number is (it’s 12).
I think he’s an outfielder – I’m really not sure – and what all of this shows you is that I don’t watch a whole lot of Dodger games.
Doesn’t matter. He’s suddenly become my boy because he spoke out on an issue that a whole lot of red-blooded American males had on their minds but didn’t want to have their Man Card pulled.
His message was simple: Hey Major League Baseball – stop showing these overly suggestive ads during the playoffs. Called labeled it “soft porn,” which may be a bit of a stretch, but the point is made.
Call’s contention is that he’d like to be able to watch a game with his son and not have to answer questions about why that lady has on the red body suit.
Or why that other lady is walking around in her underwear and then shown holding strategically placed basketballs.
Show all the commercials about power tools and hair growth you want, but can we hold off on these risque-to-say-the-least ads?
And it’s not that they just appear once per game; they are constantly being shown.
As a marketing ploy, it’s a solid move: Appeal to a mostly male audience, most of whom don’t mind looking at attractive women such as Megan Fox and Sydney Sweeney.
Yes, Mr. Marketing Guy, I do realize that the point is to get your product noticed. But is it the product that gets noticed or Ms. Sweeney and/or Ms. Fox? I do know Ms. Fox is wanting to enlighten us about the merits of something that called Ro Sparks. Apparently if you buy and use this product, women in head-to-toe red jumpsuits (who may or may not have had a BBL) will become overly friendly to you.
As for Ms. Sweeney, I have no idea what it is she is selling. All I know is that she says “just sports” a lot, so that’s gotta be a big clue right there.
No matter who is selling the commercial spots, MLB has the hammer to be able to put the kibosh on whatever they think might have crossed the line. Spoiler alert: They’ve crossed the line.
Let me clear – I am not offended, a word way too many people run to try to make things worse than they actually are. My youngest child is 37 years old, so I don’t have to engage in any uncomfortable conversations. I don’t find the need to change the channel.
In a mid-1970s commercial for a car company, the All-American virtues of “baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet” were extolled.
Fifty years later, it has more like “baseball, male enhancement, betting on underwear and electric cars.”
And now that the Dodgers have been summarily dismissed from the playoffs, Alex Call will have a lot more opportunities to tell his children to take out the trash and/or brush their teeth and/or get ready for bed to avoid what might show up between innings.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com