With her campaign to integrate destroy Augusta National in tatters, the publicity-seeking Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organizations, is taking the NHL to task for their just-debuted television ad campaign:
Martha Burk, the chairwoman of the National Council of Women's Organizations, said she intends to write letters of protest to the league and to U.S. television network NBC over the NHL's advertising campaign, which is set to debut next week.
And God help them if they don't respond is the implied message. Click here to see the ad.
Burk said the ad is ''offensive on many levels''.''The woman is dressed provocatively and when she asks the player if he's ready, it's a double-entendre in my view,'' Burk said. ''She's in the ad as a groomer, a sex object.
''The commercial is clearly selling sex and violence and the last image in that commercial is a young boy watching this, so he's clearly the customer they're after, or it's a misguided attempt to draw in families.''
Give the unenviable task of defending the silly from the inane was the NHL's Bernadette Mansur, who really earned her paycheck today. Don't believe me? Then try reading this with a straight face to a reporter:
'This ad shows no disrespect for women,'' Mansur said. ''On the contrary, the woman is the spiritual and physical trainer for the `Warrior' and is his mentor.''
If Burk thinks for a second she'll get even one percent of the publicity she got from her attacks (and that's what they were, attacks) on Augusta National, she's kidding herself. Then again, this is sure to cause a ruckus in Canada, where figures like Burk are taken a tad more seriously than here in the States.
It’s too bad that people can find work in this country being little more than professionally offended. Throw around words like “outrage” and “disrespect” and some joker will put a mic in front of your face.
I’m sure that women in this country face much more important challenges (right to choose, wage gap come to mind) than whether a stupid ad (which it is) that analogizes hockey players to gladiators is sexist or whether they can play golf at a certain club.
Frankly, I’m outraged and feel disrespected by how offended Burk pretends to be.
I don’t know if Burk is the one to get all offended, but jeebus, that ad really sucks.
Set aside the idea of pushing athletes as “warriors” during a time of war (never a good idea, from a PR standpoint), but the ad makes the cardinal mistake of taking itself (and the game) way too damned seriously.
That’s not to suggest the ad wasn’t funny … just it wasn’t INTENTIONALLY funny.
If Burk can stop these ads from airing, she’ll unintentionally be doing the NHL a favor.
I know this sounds like a crackpot theory, but: I’m really wondering if this wasn’t engineered, either by the Toronto Star (which clued Burk in on the ad in the first place) or, ultimately, the league itself. Think of the enhanced publicity Burk’s involvement will bring — a ton more than if the NHL were relying on the ad campaign by itself. No such thing as bad publicity.