Then Sue said, “We passed out flyers, but we haven’t seen any of yours. You’ll be lucky if you get one customer!
“Arghhhh!!!! Oh no! We should’ve made our flyers days ago!!”
I called an emergency meeting at lunchtime. We looked at our to-do list.
“There’s still so much to do!”
“How did we forget about the flyers? Now no one knows about our shop!”
from: Owl Diaries: The Wildwood Bakery
written and illustrated by Rebecca Elliot
Branches/Scholastic, 2017
By now, even I know The Washington D. C. Nationals won the World Series last week, winning 4 games in a 7 game series. All the games they won were in the “away” field. The Houston Astros also won their 3 games in their “away” field. It was the first time in the history of the World Series that neither team won a home game. Someone will probably attach some importance to that piece of trivia, or maybe someone already has.
The way I see it both cities won, too. Lots of fans came to the game, many from out of town. They stayed in hotels and ate in restaurants and brought home souvenirs.
A long World Series is good for local and not-so-local economies.
I checked https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/ just because I wondered. Six World Series championships in the last 10 years (2010-2019) were decided in 6 or 7 games. Since I don’t want to be accused of “cherry-picking” my statistics, only 1 championship was decided in a sweep of 4 games. Three championships were decided by 4 wins to 1 in a 5-game series.
Many fans stayed home, and watched the games on TV. Some fast-forward through the commercials. I’m not one who does that, though (even if I were a fan). First of all, I don’t have that kind of TV. Second, I use my commercial time for important breaks of my own: snacks, bathroom breaks, texting to my kids. But that creates a problem for advertisers.
They need to show their products and services to the public. Otherwise how would we know which laundry detergent cleans best and which medicine helps which ailment, what car to buy (or lease)? And which beer to drink?
But seriously, there is a legitimate need for advertising in our culture. Companies need to make and sell stuff, and we need to buy it. Truth in advertising, like truth in journalism, and truth in general needs to be evaluated by the person receiving that “truth.”
That said, advertisers were also winners. Did you see the “Beer Guy” during game 5? He held onto a tall, $15 can of Bud Light in each hand as a baseball hurtled toward him. He did not drop his beer, not either one. His name is Jeff Adams (would have been funnier if his first name was Sam!) and was in a televised ad 48 hours later, during game 6. Marketers for Bud Light say the moment is worth about $8 million to their company.
The ball hit Jeff in the gut, but he claims he didn’t feel a thing. So he was also a winner.
The network showing the games was a winner. The advertisers paid to ply their wares during all 7 games.
The price advertisers paid for a 30-second ad during the game was $500,000. Not even close to Super Bowl prices, but Fox did something interesting in addition to running traditional commercials.
They added content in a break-away moment. In the middle of the third inning in game 1, Kevin Burkhardt announced, “this commercial-free break is brought to you by T-Mobile.” The whole two minutes he and his colleagues commented on the game, a T-Mobile logo sat prominently on their desk. At the end of the “content piece,” Kevin read a prepared 30-second statement describing the current T-Mobile ad campaign. This would presumably work with any commentator commenting on any content, subtly (or obviously) advertising any company.
This type of advertising is called a native ad, and it’s something broadcasters want to do more of. It might be the opposite of subliminal advertising, but the effect is the same. Native ads don’t seem so bad. They keep our eyeballs attached to the message, as it is said in the advertising world. And we get to learn something, too.
The players are also winners. For their regular season, a rookie earns about $555,000. The highest paid players get salaries in the tens of millions. And that’s not counting the bonus each player receives for post-season games. It depends on the position he plays, but that bonus can be worth many tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The team coming in runner-up in the Series gets a bonus to split, too. It’s only a little smaller.
No wonder baseball is our national past time. Everybody wins.
-—stay curious! (and playful)
Today's Election Day. Please vote!
“Arghhhh!!!! Oh no! We should’ve made our flyers days ago!!”
I called an emergency meeting at lunchtime. We looked at our to-do list.
“There’s still so much to do!”
“How did we forget about the flyers? Now no one knows about our shop!”
from: Owl Diaries: The Wildwood Bakery
written and illustrated by Rebecca Elliot
Branches/Scholastic, 2017
By now, even I know The Washington D. C. Nationals won the World Series last week, winning 4 games in a 7 game series. All the games they won were in the “away” field. The Houston Astros also won their 3 games in their “away” field. It was the first time in the history of the World Series that neither team won a home game. Someone will probably attach some importance to that piece of trivia, or maybe someone already has.
The way I see it both cities won, too. Lots of fans came to the game, many from out of town. They stayed in hotels and ate in restaurants and brought home souvenirs.
A long World Series is good for local and not-so-local economies.
I checked https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/ just because I wondered. Six World Series championships in the last 10 years (2010-2019) were decided in 6 or 7 games. Since I don’t want to be accused of “cherry-picking” my statistics, only 1 championship was decided in a sweep of 4 games. Three championships were decided by 4 wins to 1 in a 5-game series.
Many fans stayed home, and watched the games on TV. Some fast-forward through the commercials. I’m not one who does that, though (even if I were a fan). First of all, I don’t have that kind of TV. Second, I use my commercial time for important breaks of my own: snacks, bathroom breaks, texting to my kids. But that creates a problem for advertisers.
They need to show their products and services to the public. Otherwise how would we know which laundry detergent cleans best and which medicine helps which ailment, what car to buy (or lease)? And which beer to drink?
But seriously, there is a legitimate need for advertising in our culture. Companies need to make and sell stuff, and we need to buy it. Truth in advertising, like truth in journalism, and truth in general needs to be evaluated by the person receiving that “truth.”
That said, advertisers were also winners. Did you see the “Beer Guy” during game 5? He held onto a tall, $15 can of Bud Light in each hand as a baseball hurtled toward him. He did not drop his beer, not either one. His name is Jeff Adams (would have been funnier if his first name was Sam!) and was in a televised ad 48 hours later, during game 6. Marketers for Bud Light say the moment is worth about $8 million to their company.
The ball hit Jeff in the gut, but he claims he didn’t feel a thing. So he was also a winner.
The network showing the games was a winner. The advertisers paid to ply their wares during all 7 games.
The price advertisers paid for a 30-second ad during the game was $500,000. Not even close to Super Bowl prices, but Fox did something interesting in addition to running traditional commercials.
They added content in a break-away moment. In the middle of the third inning in game 1, Kevin Burkhardt announced, “this commercial-free break is brought to you by T-Mobile.” The whole two minutes he and his colleagues commented on the game, a T-Mobile logo sat prominently on their desk. At the end of the “content piece,” Kevin read a prepared 30-second statement describing the current T-Mobile ad campaign. This would presumably work with any commentator commenting on any content, subtly (or obviously) advertising any company.
This type of advertising is called a native ad, and it’s something broadcasters want to do more of. It might be the opposite of subliminal advertising, but the effect is the same. Native ads don’t seem so bad. They keep our eyeballs attached to the message, as it is said in the advertising world. And we get to learn something, too.
The players are also winners. For their regular season, a rookie earns about $555,000. The highest paid players get salaries in the tens of millions. And that’s not counting the bonus each player receives for post-season games. It depends on the position he plays, but that bonus can be worth many tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The team coming in runner-up in the Series gets a bonus to split, too. It’s only a little smaller.
No wonder baseball is our national past time. Everybody wins.
-—stay curious! (and playful)
Today's Election Day. Please vote!
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