When it comes to merging commercial advertisements into major-league baseball games, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has the bases covered.
Ads for “Spider-Man 2” will be placed on bases at major-league ballparks during games from June 11-13 as part of a promotion with MLB. That weekend, the Sox play the visiting Atlanta Braves at U.S. Cellular and the Cubs travel to Anaheim.
The move is the latest push by baseball to increase its marketing to younger fans–and make money along the way.
“It doesn’t impact the play or performance of the game,” said Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer.
“I guess it’s inevitable, but it’s sad,” said Fay Vincent, a former baseball commissioner and former president of Columbia Pictures, which is releasing the movie. “I’m old-fashioned. I’m a romanticist. I think the bases should be protected from this.”
The “Spider-Man” promotion has been in the works for more than a year, and the ads, about 4 inches long, won’t appear on home plates. But the deal includes stadium signs, movie trailers on scoreboards, Spider-Men climbing light towers, and masks and foam hand giveaways.
The movie opens June 30, and the weekend was picked because interleague play draws higher attendance than usual.
Baseball gets about $3.6 million in a deal negotiated by Major League Baseball Properties with Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Inc., a baseball executive said on condition of anonymity.
Most of the 13 teams that are home that weekend get about $50,000 apiece, one team executive said on condition of anonymity. But the New York Yankees, also playing at home, balked at the idea. The franchise said it would put ads on the bases only during batting practice for one game.
Presidential candidate Ralph Nader criticized the deal. He wrote Tuesday to baseball commissioner Bud Selig, denouncing the decision to have ads on uniforms during the season-opening series in March between the Yankees and Tampa Bay in Tokyo. The New York Mets and Cubs wore similar ads when they played in Tokyo in 2000.
“It’s gotten beyond grotesque,” Nader said. “The fans have to revolt here.”
Bob Costas, an NBC Sports and HBO broadcaster, also criticized MLB. “On the one hand they sell history whenever it suits them, and on the other hand they disrespect it,” Costas told The Wall Street Journal.
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GETTING BRANDED
If anything is up for grabs, here are a few other sponsorship opportunities for baseball to explore:
Baseball bats are sponsored by a single’s dating service.
Mow John Deere’s name into the outfield grass.
Make the pitching mounds out of Mounds candy bars. Half of the stadium mounds have real almonds, half don’t.
Find a men’s clothing line to sponsor the umpires’ blazers.
Find a men’s big and tall clothing line to sponsor the infield tarp.
For the opening of “Shrek 2,” dress the fielders up as characters from the movie for one inning. Shrek plays catcher.
The foul line chalk is brought to you by America’s schoolteachers.
Every plate appearance is brought to you by Corningware.
Every pitching change is brought to you by Pampers.
Fresh baseballs are provided by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
And third base is brought to you by Paris Hilton.
The foul poles are sponsored by Viagra.
The batboy from the home dugout is dressed like a hot dog, the batboy from the visitors’ dugout is dressed like a giant cup of Pepsi.
Both bullpens are sponsored by Miller Lite.
One “tastes great,” the other is … you know the drill.
Any time a player spits, it’s courtesy of Kleenex.
If the trainer comes out to check on a player, that’s a reminder to sign up for Blue Cross Blue Shield
Steal a base and get a Domino’s pizza delivered right to that base.
Shin guards on batters brought to you by Allstate Insurance.
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Edited by Chris Malcolm (ccmalcolm@tribune.com) and Chris Courtney (cdcourtney@tribune.com)
