Saturday, September 23, 2006

Always the optimist, I foresee the end of those Joe Buck commercials

Expect this to be every bit as fun and authentic as that Cheers bar at McCarron Airport: "Aiming to reach younger business travelers, Holiday Inns and Resorts...has teamed with the Sporting News, a venerable sports media brand, to create a prototype sports bar at the Holiday Inn Select at Dallas Love Field."

Can't be sure but I think by "venerable," the writer here means "not really doing all that well."

I wonder if this sports theme is one reason why Joe Buck was inexplicably forced into an otherwise likeable Holiday Inn campaign. But I have hope. Buck is a Fox announcer. Could his appearance be considered a conflict with Fox Sports Grills? Oh please, please, please. Then we can at least have 30 Joe Buck-free seconds each Sunday and maybe Holiday Inn can look into other, more deserving sports announcers.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is Joe Buck on Fox NFL Sunday? I just remembered this post.

Irene Done said...

An excellent question. Maybe Fox has identified a large, previously unknown audience that loves unbridled smugness.

If I were smarter and more energetic, I'd more fully develop my sports-announcers-as-brands theory and use Buck as exhibit A. Because, really, programming executives these days only go for three kinds of people to fill the anouncing booth: famous ex-players, famous ex-coaches and sons of famous announcers. These people have some name recognition -- a brand name -- so I guess the thinking is: instant audience. Actual talent or likeability never matters (Jeremy Schapp and Tim McCarver to give but two examples).

God only knows how people like Al Michaels or Bob Costas ever got hired.