Friday, March 18, 2011

Where Are The Dodgers Billboards in 2011?

We are two weeks or so away from Opening Day. Spring is in the air. Daylight savings time has hit. The weather is getting better, the temperatures are warmer.

This should be Dodgers season. And yet, it isn't.

To be fair, the outdoor advertising wars usually start with a shot across the bow from our friends behind the Orange curtain. In 2007, they beat us to the punch, dropping red billboards all over the city by mid-March. In 2008, the Angels started advertising in February, catching the Dodgers so flat-footed that our team's response was simply pathetic.

In 2009, the Dodgers debuted the "This Is My Town" campaign, which started out strong before devolving into dubious celebrities, a death spiral that got even worse in with images of Nickelback and Tara Lipinski and other f-list celebrities. (Oh sure, nerds like us loved it every once in a while, but by and large the campaign was worthy of unabated mockery.)

And this year, perhaps unprovoked by a strangely silent Angels rival (not just in outdoor advertising, but in the free agent market this off-season, I might add), the Dodgers got even more thrifty by asking fans to put themselves on (mock) Dodgers billboards. Why pay for celebrity endorsements at all (especially when the endorsements are so obscure that no one can recognize them), when you can just pimp your fans for free?

So here we are, past the midpoint in March, and there are no Dodgers billboards throughout the city. There are no Angels billboards, either. Maybe this signals a missed opportunity. Maybe "Mars Needs Moms" needed that extra billboard space to eke its way to the worst animated opening ever. More likely, the Dodgers don't have the money to spend on outdoor advertising this year, given the precarious financial condition of the organization.

And that's a pity, because it makes it just a little bit harder to get psyched for this year's offense-challenged, injury-ridden, unproven-manager squad without seeing visible reminders why we should be excited for the coming Dodgers season. Especially off a year when the economy is a tad bit better, coming off a decline in attendance; isn't this the time one would want to invest in outdoor advertising?

If this isn't the Dodgers' town, then whose is it? Anyone?

The only upside is, this gives extra capacity for additional Suckerpunch billboards. I'll take it, for now.

BTW, love love love the Silversun Pickups in the Suckerpunch trailer.

11 comments:

Roberto Baly said...

Read my blog. A bunch of billboards are popping up. I know you are a busy man, so you missed it. :P

Fernie V said...

Hey Steve, I dont live in L.A., so Robert's people may be making these up, but check out vin is my homeboy site.

Fernie V said...

Damn you Roberto, I wanted to tell him first.

Josh S. said...

I suspect this post will be edited into one long strikethrough, followed by a link to Roberto's site and a facepalm gif.

NicJ said...

Yeah I've seen plenty around town.

Steve Dittmore said...

@Josh S. +1

Dodgerbobble said...

In Sax's defense, this ad campaign has been very subtle, as opposed to the "This Is My Town" ads which they shoved down our throats.

I have seen a few of these around the Valley over the last few weeks.

Steve Sax said...

@Roberto: Thanks for the headsup. Through you, I've seen five now (thank you!)...but that still pales in comparison to prior years.

I canvas the Hollywood-Miracle Mile-405-110 corridor pretty frequently, and I haven't seen anywhere near the number of billboards as any of the last four years.

Steve Sax said...

I've also seen a lot more Suckerpunch billboards, btw.

Roberto Baly said...

@ Sax - You are correct about that. Plus the Dodgers started early last year. Around January. When they did those ugly "Dodgers/Yankees Rivalry Renewed" Billboards.

Keep up the great work.

Steve Sax said...

@Roberto: Oh yeah, those "rivalry renewed" billboards! Great call. I forgot about how horrific those were. I must have tried to block it out!

Thanks for the catch and thanks for putting up your billboard pix!