This weekend brings the latest installment of the American League East showdown (Go Rays!) and Red Sox Nation has timed the release of a propaganda salvo to meet the Yanks as they arrive from down the interstate.Conover Tuttle Pace, the Boston ad and PR agency, sent us word this morning that they are helping the Sox soften up their image with a campaign called “Here,” giving us a good chuckle considering the two teams’ pleasure in pouring gas on their blazing rivalry.
Rather than generating ads to sell tickets as most teams do (Fenway has been sold out since 2003), the team wants to tap into a “deeper well of emotion” with their fans and their ballpark, which they have dubbed “America’s most beloved” in the campaign.
As the team’s chief marketing officer put it: “These new ads are softer.” He noted that on-field success is “fragile” and the team needs to do “everything we can to sustain this current phenomenon.”
Slow piano and emotional trumpets score the new ads in an attempt to tug at the heartstrings of the Beantown faithful. That’s a startling contrast to another CRT-created spot that opens with a salvo from Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner – “Red Sox Nation? What a bunch of [deleted] that is” – followed by family photos of Sox faithful in their “B” caps scored by militaristic music and ending with a quote from principal owner John Henry: “A wise man once said, ‘Don’t poke the bear.’” The photo montage concludes with a tank displaying a Red Sox flag, which seems more like a Red Sox Nation brand to us.
Who knows, maybe the sappy ads will appeal to the more sensitive side of Fenway faithful and A-Rod will be met with polite applause and showered with respect this weekend.
I don’t think so either. It’s more likely the Madonna masks will come out en masse.
(Photo: The Phoenix)