Has anyone seen the ESPN Magazine commercial? I saw it for the first time Monday night at 12:43am on ESPN. To say the least I was not amused, but perhaps I am too sensitive. I’ve been told that some of my television commercial evaluations are far too subjective. So tell me what you think.
The commercial goes as follows. An agent and a young player come into an office where an owner is standing. After everyone takes their seats the owner says ‘so how do you like the deal?’ The agent responds , ’56 million dollars right? That sounds like a great deal to me. I think it’s a great deal for us.’ The player complains ’56 million is ok but what about the subscription. I told you there was no deal without a subscription to ESPN Magazine.’ The owner states, ‘You want my subscription to ESPN? I don’t know if I can do that.’ The player says, ‘I can’t do the deal without it.’ Then the television commercial breaks to commentary about the magazine and the complementary MP3 player. When we return to the scenario the player agent and owner are all standing by the door. The owner says, ‘Alright I’ll give you my subscription to ESPN Magazine, but can I get the MP3 player? Maybe use it every other week?’ The player takes the MP3 saying, ‘We’ll think about it’ and then walks out the door. End of commercial.
Obviously there is a Black male in this television commercial. Now take a moment. Imagine that everyone was white. Does this commercial seem particularly stupid? Given that sports magazine commercials are extremely far from logical or coherent, this one seems even further. So who in the commercial is the Black male?
If you instantly assumed even before this point that the athlete was African American, well that says something about the culture and society today. The answer is the athlete. And thus I am highly aggravated. The young Black man seems incredibly stupid. Even for a ridiculous commercial this seems stupid. Maybe it’s me but it annoyed me. How about you?
This is what I think, what do you think?
7 comments:
I could care less about the race of the athlete. The fact that someone has 56 million dollars and can't buy their own subscription is entirely stupid. Furthermore why the owner can't just get a new subscription is beyond me. I see no way this would help the sales of the magazine subscriptions.
I always thought that the team owner came off as the dumbest person in the commercial, not the athelete. In fact, I thought the athelete came off looking the smartest and most business savvy (despite insisting on having the magazine in addition to the money).
It is hard to tell if the commercial holds a racial bias, it obviously hinges on how many megabits of music the MP3 player will hold.
I just thought it was a good commercial -- though I did get tired of hearing the phrase "ESPN the Magazine". Just how many times did they repeat that phrase? I didn't think the black guy was dumb (I'm a white female) so maybe you guys are just a little bit touchy. My question is, who is he? I don't follow sports, so I don't know if he's an athelete or an actor -- but he did a great job.
I agree with you 100%. Why wasn't the sports agent a Jew? That commercial is ridiculous!
i have an idea, how bout yall get a sense of humor??? Race has absolutly nothing to do with it, they were obviously just trying to be funny, even if they didnt succeed. this is what happens when people look into things way to much trying to find something that isnt there.
That commercial was funny as hell. the black guy made the whole damn commercial, in a good way
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