The citizens of Boston and New England will never forget the events of the 2013 Boston Marathon, but it seems like some advertisers almost let it slip their minds.
During the third inning of Game 5 of the World Series, Chevrolet and the MLB planned to honor one of their charities that provides support to local, underprivileged youth baseball leagues. Cardinals legend Ozzie Smith would lead fans in holding up strategically placed placards throughout the lower bowl. Once held, the placards would have read out Chevrolet’s slogan for their charitable campaign, “SILVERADO STRONG.”
The slogan follows the format of the emotionally charged “Boston Strong” campaign that contributed to millions of dollars in aid. The charity has been using the same catchphrase the entire year, so this appears to be much more of an unfortunate coincidence given the St. Louis-Boston matchup for the World Series. Â There were some egregious uses of the slogan’s format in the months just following the incident, but there doesn’t seem to be any malice on Chevrolet or the city of St. Louis’ part.
Only hours before the game was scheduled to start, however, the league decided to pull the ceremony out of fear for any misconstrued connection between the slogan and the city of Boston. It’s hard to imagine not a single marketing executive noticing the sensitive nature of the slogan, especially when it was determined that the Red Sox would be the opponent during the game. In the end, it appears they made the right decision to ditch the event, but one has to wonder how it was even approved in the first place.
With the event scrapped, look forward to six more minutes of Chevy commercials in its place.
Photo via Twitter/@Bward3
