March 11, 2007
CANINE MORTO! NEXT ON THE OCHO!
I hate to do this. There are few things that would get me to bounce a once-in-a-generation Hoya championship off my marquis spot, but sometimes . . .
ESPN. What is wrong with you? Seriously, are your decision makers so removed from society up there in Bristol, CT that you have assumed the the moral sense of village idiots on vacation in Tijuana? That's not an academic question, although at this stage I understand the term "academic" may be far out of reach of whatever 7th-grade dropouts approve your ad copy.
During the March 10th broadcast of the Big East Conference Championship game, ESPN aired a commercial touting its coverage of some Arena Football league. The gist of it was--and this is paraphrasing--'Less Field Means More Intensity . . .' which would seem all well and good, except the ad had to finish its sentence––and more demure readers may want to shade their eyes––with one of the sickest similies I've read since NFL Quarterback Steve Young said "We're going to beat those Chargers like we beat San Fran faggots on our off days!" For the record, Steve Young never said anything remotely like that. But ESPN did finish its Arena Football ad thusly: "Less Field Means More Intensity--Like Two Pitbulls In A Cage!"
WHAT
THE
FUCK?
Did ESPN just pimp one of its broadcast league sports as having the competitive qualities of a barbaric bloodsport run by the most reprobate category of humans outside of slave traders and serial rapists? Yep! Yep, they did!
Pit or cage fights by animals has an unfortunately long history. It is gladiator fighting one species removed from humans, and yet it preys on participants bred to trust humans who nonetheless condition dogs to subject themselves to the most vile kinds of abuse. The lead photo is of a pitbull who apparently let the "ESPN-aired Arena Football-like" intensity get the best of him.
I like ESPN. I know people that work there and feel that it's a pretty decent organization, whatever its shortcomings might be. This particular broadcast ad, however, is so beyond the pale that I have to call them on it. Sick cruelty to animals is not a bullet point in a boardroom presentation; nor is it a pushbutton term to be inserted into an ad for an "extreme" sport (no matter how moronic that sport may or may not be.)
ESPN, please get your shit together. We love dogs. Most people do. Stop pimping their cruelty like it's something funny or extreme.
Giving ESPN the benefit of the doubt, it's possible that a local cable affiliate inserted that pro- animal cruelty ad into the Bristol feed. It didn't look like it, but I'm kind of hoping on it; otherwise it's like finding out your second cousin is a child molestor. Yuck!
UPDATE: Here is the exact transcript of the above-described ad:
[Voiceover] "If these walls could talk, they'd say less field means more fury, like two pitbulls locked in a cage. If these walls could talk, they'd say you have to see it to believe it. Russell Athletic ESPN Arena Football. Monday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2."
To read about the cruel practice of dogfights with pitbulls, see the ASPCA's page here. Pit Bulls On The Web has a page about the inhumane world of dogfights.
UPDATE II: Hear the audio portion of the offending ad by clicking here.
(Photo from Pit Bulls On The Web)
Tagged: ads, cruelty, dogs, espn, pitbullPosted by Lexiphane at March 11, 2007 1:32 AM
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Comments
I am going home tonight and hugging my cat. After I buy her a can of that really expensive cat food that is probably not very good for her, but makes her so happy. Seriously, those are some horrible pictures. What is wrong with people?
Posted by: calvinofan ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.lexiphane.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 12, 2007 1:08 PM
Neither ESPN nor Russell Athletic have heard the last of this from me.
Posted by: Lexiphane at March 12, 2007 3:38 PM