David Ortiz bobblehead ‘racially insensitive’, says Boston Red Sox President
This weeks rave of the week may seem a little out of sorts …a bobble head? you ask. Yes. And Boston RedSox team president Sam Kennedy spoke up about it. Why because the team was doing a promotion a David Ortiz bobblehead day. Instead of going through with the protion and risk embarrassment , the Red Sox halted the promotion and vowed to reschedule the promotion for another day after the bobblehead feature was corrected…below is the published report on this:
The Boston Red Sox did not approve of the David Ortiz bobbleheads and canceled the promotion prior to Tuesday’s game against the rival New York Yankees at Fenway Park. “The bobbleheads were unacceptable to the club and not appropriate for distribution,” the Red Sox said in a statement. “We will be issuing new David Ortiz bobbleheads to all ticketed fans at a later date. … We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.” The team promised to distribute the bobbleheads to the first 15,000 fans, but Red Sox President Sam Kennedy elected to scrap the promotion after viewing the finished product. “I thought the bobbleheads were an inaccurate portrayal of David,” Kennedy told ESPN “To go further, I thought the facial features were racially insensitive.”The Red Sox said in their statement that they would announce details after the game of when they plan distribute a new-look bobblehead of the retiring star.
Good for the RedSox and the team president for standing up and doing something. All too often reaction is the order of the day, in this case it was a proactive approach to something that would have been a marketing disaster and a disrespect to their star player.