There’s an episode of The Simpsons in which Krusty the Clown agreed to give away a free Krusty Burger if the United States won gold at certain events in the 1984 Olympics. When the Soviet Union boycotted the Games, Krusty stood to lose $44 million.
For some reason I was reminded of this episode when this came through my Twitter feed this morning:
How about this baseball note? This April featured the second highest average of strikeouts/game in the 138 year history of MLB
— Dave Flemming (@FlemmingDave) May 1, 2013
You see, Procter & Gamble is donating $1 to the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) campaign every time a Major League Baseball player strikes out this season. To raise awareness of its Head & Shoulders shampoo brand, P&G is encouraging fans to tweet the hashtag #whiff along with the hashtag of your favorite team.More shockingly – the top 8 months in the history of the sport for K’s/ game have been the most recent 8 months! Crazy high strikeouts
— Dave Flemming (@FlemmingDave) May 1, 2013
According to AdAge.com, Head & Shoulders spent $60 million in measured media last year, so MLB’s record strikeout rate probably won’t leave the company’s executives pulling their hair out like Krusty. Which is good, since bald shampoo executives can’t exactly offer a ringing endorsement of their product.
I’ll be here all week.
Continue reading “Daily Distractions: Caving to the #whiff, like the rest of MLB” »