With college football a mere two weeks away (can that be right?? what happened to the summer??), Fox Sports 1 has a new, almost two-minute commercial, to let you know how much they’ve increased their football coverage.
It’s not good.
This commercial is as cliche as they come – the neglected wife upset on Saturday because her husband does nothing but watch football. (Honestly, that seems like a perfect Saturday to me, but whatever). It’s tired stereotyping and the ad has been met with much resentment for perpetuating the notion that women shouldn’t be football fans.
Not to mention that, but who in their right mind would advertise “TBA vs TBA” over and over again in a real commercial??
We shouldn’t be surprised, though. In the past, Fox has not done well in the commercial department to promote their college sports coverage and talent.
Exhibit A:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVUcXIcQdT8
The Gus Effect somehow equates to Erin Andrews in your living room? Got it.
Exhibit B:
That Gus Johnson may need a metaphorical bomb squad is one thing, a commercial with the literal depiction feels inauthentic, like it was from an idea of rejected ESPN commercials.
Finally, we have Exhibit C, which doesn’t even exist on You Tube anymore because it’s so bad. Fox Sports paid a lot of money to put this commercial together and then deleted it from existence. Has that ever happened before? You might remember that one as Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery calling a woman giving birth to very graphic detail.
These commercials are all over the place. With a sports network, sticking to a common theme, such as This is SportsCenter, might be the better way to go. I don’t need to see Bill Raftery in a delivery room or dissing women football fans, thank you very much.
