Hacky Sack: Mike Florio and Sprint
There aren’t many things in the world that bother me these days, but one of them is the constant advertising creep that envelops the internet and society in general. I often wrestle with the question of how far this can go before the ends stop justifying the means. While I’m not sure how far it goes in society at large, I’m positive that Mike Florio’s constant shilling for Sprint on his premiere rumor-mongering site, Pro Football Talk, is offensive to the senses.
It’s not just that he has an advertiser, there are ways to have an advertiser and at least be light-hearted with it. Bill Simmons, a frequent target of my criticism (not in print yet, but trust me) has handled Subway sponsoring his podcasts by playing up their product with a self-aware praise (and thus funny) of the product that is so over the top that you’d think he was Joe Buck and Subway was David Eckstein. It’s the way that Florio just attaches his mouth to Sprint’s antenna and slobbers on it for dear life. Gobbles for every last customer. You tell Florio how high to jump and he’ll do it, especially because Sprint gets reception that far up!
Look, I’m not a take down artist for other columnists, thus the pieces cheesy sub-title. There are many things about Florio’s writing and style that bug me, especially the constant nicknames for players (I did this when I was in 10th grade) and the way he comes off as a big subjective dick about any player who happens to get arrested. That said, he runs a great site. Not a site that I would put in my RSS feed because it posts a bit too much and because of the things I’ve already been over, but nonetheless a very informative and involved blog.
But, the Sprint thing bothers me a lot. To go back to Simmons, he talks about how he won’t be surprised if in 2012 we have the Chevrolet NBA Finals. Where does this stop? I don’t know that it does. We already have the Subway Simmons Podcast and Pro Football Talk brought to you by Sprint Mobile. What’s next, Gregg Rosenthal’s Pancake Blocks sponsored by IHOP? (Gregg will never read this, but if he does and this happens, I demand a cut.) As long as advertisers keep following the eyes, I think we’re destined to have “______ blog brought to you by _______”.
However, just because you run a blog and have a sponsor does NOT mean you have to be a complete shill for them. Passionate sports fans and advertising overkill have met several times over the past few years: This Is Our Country, FrankTV, and Saved By Zero are perhaps the best examples of products that have been shoved down our throats so many times that there isn’t a chance in hell of us thinking of the parent company without adding on “…those annoying sons of bitches” in our heads. Florio and Sprint are arguably worse than that: they’re breaking the fourth wall, if you will. It’s one thing to have ads, for those ads to make arguments, and for us to then decide. It’s another completely to sponsor someones website and then put them on the company payroll to shill out for their services in the guise of an actual blog post. Without getting off on a total tangent here, advertising agencies need to learn that “creative marketing” like this ultimately does more harm than good. Fans, exempting Super Bowl wives who are watching because everyone said they should, only tolerate ads. Stepping outside of boundaries you’ve already pushed to the limit by sponsoring every damn stat shot that gets put up on the screen is something that ultimately creates more ill will than new customers.
As for Florio, I hope you weren’t planning on clicking any of those links of the proof of his Sprint work, as his website crashed under the pressure of a trillion page views of people trying to figure out which uniform Albert Haynesworth would be stomping opposing linemen on the ground in next year. So he’ll be running off of NBCSports for a little bit. To end with a glib judgmental remark like Florio would, perhaps he should have tried to get a server company to sponsor him.
