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Responding to a critical public outcry, Major League Baseball Commissioner Allen H. “Bud” Selig announced late Thursday night that the product placement scheme proposed by marketers of Spiderman2 has been scotched.
Sony’s Columbia Pictures would have put the logo for the upcoming Spider-Man sequel on the bases at 15 major league parks next month.
This does not suprise my nephew, who’s 7, and who says “Spidey would never want to do that.”
Public outrage was palpable, according to Ad Age, including an ESPN.com poll in which 79.4% of the 45,000-plus respondents blasted the plan. Columns and commentary in the media criticizing the plan also followed. And, perhaps the worst part for baseball, its premier team — the Yankees — failed to sign on for the plan.
Counterpunch reports that Geoffrey Ammer, president of worldwide marketing for the Columbia, said, “We saw some of the polls on the Internet that said that 71 and 81 percent of the fans didn’t approve of it. Based on this reaction from the fans, we didn’t want to do anything to take away from their enjoyment of the game and if that was the case with this element of the promotion, we could afford to do without it.”