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Chrysler backs
off lingerie football
Super Bowl show: Grid romp in bras and panties
You can get your panties out of a bunch.
DaimlerChrysler has decided not to sponsor the Lingerie Bowl after
all.
The gimmick, featuring 14 models in bras and underwear playing a
pay-per-view game during halftime of the Feb. 1 Super Bowl, will still go
on, but without Dodge’s logo and slogan (“Grab Life by the Horns”)
on those bras and underwear.
DaimlerChrysler pulled out last night after receiving increasing
heat over the whole mess, apparently not realizing when it announced the
sponsorship last month that women and perhaps even a few men might be
offended by halftime show with scantily clad players flashing their
36-Cs during the break in the most-watched game of the year.
Senior executives of the carmaker had been backpedaling over recent
days, apparently stunned by the flood of emails and rising protests from
conservative groups and other organizations, including even some dealers,
over its sponsorship of the event.
Last week even the charity that was supposed to receive the
proceeds from the $19.95 contest, the American Foundation for AIDS
Research, decided to decline the money and cut all ties to the game.
When it first signed on to the event, Dodge executives said they
saw it as a nifty means of breaking through the ad clutter of Super Bowl.
Now, in backing off the event, they say the controversy surrounding
the gridiron panty romp has become too distracting, taking the focus away
from its cars.
But when you agree to sponsor a tackle football game starring
several ex-Playboy pinups, that distraction probably should be
anticipated.
The company also claims that neither its CEO, Dieter Zetsche, nor
its executive vice president of sales and marketing, Joe Eberhardt, had
any involvement in or knowledge of the Lingerie Bowl deal before it was
signed.
They say the women were going to play in shorts and sports
bras, though official site www.lingeriebowl.com
suggests differently.
Lingerie Bowl producer Horizon Productions says the game will
go on, with NFL Hall of Famers Lawrence Taylor and Eric Dickerson coaching
the squads.
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December
18, 2003© 2003
Media Life
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