After Joe Buck’s opening comments from Seattle on Fox Sports NFL Sunday today, you’d expect PR from Starbucks to be on the phone with a show producer. The gist of the comments were, (and I’m paraphrasing without TIVO benefit here), but: “Welcome to Seattle, where you can buy a mocha-latta-caffa-half-twist-blatta-yatta latte for 11 bucks, and people are lined up around the block to drink that crap.”Ouch. Someone might say, well, they didn’t mention Starbucks directly. C’mon. What other coffee conglomerate owns Seattle? Still, it begs the question: We know paid placement and product mentions on live events on TV shows in general are standard. But do announcers on the other hand also have a responsibility to recognize that negative things they may say about a brand not paid to be on may hurt that brand?
(Not to mention, the no-brainer potential play on the last name of both announcer and brand that hee-haw Bradshaw and JJ coulda had fun with to give Starbucks a nice little segment - for free. People expect that schtick from those guys, so poking fun at the brand would be expected from them.)
Instead, two goals achieved: brand indirectly insulted and opportunity missed.
Regardless of what you think about Starbucks, (this really could be any brand Buck mentioned), or what you think about him, but:
Did Buck go too far with the reference on live TV?
Tags: advertising, Caribou Coffee, brands, Starbucks, Fox Sports, Joe Buck
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