Thank God For Shellsbury, That Taco Thing Was Getting Out Of Hand
Friday, October 26, 2007
The image you see on the right is the brand new shirt that appeared on Cafe Press minutes after the stolen base that won you a free taco on October 30th. Commenter mance01 mentioned the nickname in the comments of the open thread last night, and instantly it was a t-shirt! Something seems fishy to me.
Now I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but on the surface the Free Taco deal for America that Jacoby Ellsbury shored up for us yesterday was pretty sweet, but after thinking about it....how annoying and staged was that? Even Joe Buck, who used the word "Shameless" during game one, and Tim McCarver how used the transition, "From Schillling to shilling", knew it was a bit much.
The thing that kills me is even more than the Taco Bell guy in the stands was the obvious hiring of bench player Royce Clayton to be the pitch man for the Fast Food company. FOX swears that none of those conversations that aired were staged, but they have to be kidding themselves if they think we're falling for that.
Let's do some math According to Darren Rovell at CNBC the advertising revenue accrued from the two games would have cost $8 million bucks.....
By the way, in last night's Game 2, the logo and the phrase "Taco Bell" were on screen for 3 minutes and 15 seconds, according to Eric Wright of Joyce Julius & Associates, a sponsorship research firm. The phrase "Taco Bell" was mentioned 11 times........Now how many of you are actually going to remember to get a free taco from 2-5pm next Tuesday? I'm sure it's probably not many. If you consider that it costs what....probably 8 cents to make a Taco??? No way are more than 100,000 people taking them up on their offer, so that cost them a total of $8,000. $8K!!! And that's not even taking into account all of the sodas and other items that people will purchase.
The firm says that equaled a value of $4.1 million in equivalent advertising time. Combining that with Game 1 exposure on Fox, Taco Bell has received more than $8 million in equivalent advertising time within the two game broadcasts.
Basically Taco Bell annoyed us for two straight World Series with 8 Million Dollars of free advertising. I for one am not going to Taco Bell on the 30th and I hope you don't either. I'm just glad Ellsbury stole the base and we don't have to be hounded with Taco Bell promotions the rest of the Series.
Taco Bell WS Coverage: Way Out Of Base Paths (CNBC: Sports Biz)
10 Comments:
I don't get drunk on Tuesdays anymore, so going to Taco Bell on the 30th is out of the question.
According to someone who ran some numbers...
"33,750 people will redeem their free taco. Or .01 percent of America. If my numbers are right, that’s only $26,000 in retail costs being exposed (it’s 77 cents a taco) and probably closer to $4,000 on gross costs."
Free is free. I'm taking a break from work on Tuesday to claim mine.
what makes you think it's free advertising? Taco Bell and its parent company, Pepsi, are official sponsors for MLB. They pay handsomely for that distinction. and they get to pimp their products for the right amount of money sometimes they even get granted exclusivity in that product area.
I can relate some contesting things for you as we do in radio. You have a sponsor, Taco Bell, who has teamed up with you for the contest. They most likely are getting some sort of trade in the form of tickets, memorbilia, merchandise for products, air time. as part of the contest you "guarantee" the client so many "mentions" on air using their name and slogan and the contest.
MLB is only doing what radio has done for a bajillion years it isnt rocket science. The only difference here is that there is a 3 parties (MLB, FOX and Taco Bell) where in radio contesting it's usually just two (the product sponsor and the station).
It's a free f'in taco worth 80 f'in cents. JHC! If I found 80 cents in the couch or on the street, I hope to God I wouldn't be this annoying about it.
And rearrange your lunch for it? WOW! And it's not even a good taco.
Ok, as far as the t-shirt, this Tacoby Shellsbury thing started when a Red Sox fan mentioned his platform to run for President of Red Sox Nation (that ridiculous fundraiser/promotional "fan club" Lucchino dreamed up)(totally brilliant btw, they're raking in the dough)
He said that his principle aim would be to bring a taco stand to Fenway, so you can get beer, pretzels, and tacos. A complete game experience.
He then stated "I already have my logo and mascot picked out: Tacboy Shellsbury"
Unfortunately, I can't remember where I read this. It might have been a blurb on one of the boston.com blogs, or a mention on NESN, or something. I also thought I saw a poster with that Taco Shell design somewhere around Fenway during game one.
I don't have a Tivo, though, so the research will have to be done by someone else.
Also, my girlfriend is "mance01" and she left the comment last night precisely because we'd seen that guy with the poster. I have no idea if the poster guy is the same as the t-shirt guy, but I hope so. I'd hate to think somebody ripped off his idea for a profit.
Hope that clears a little of this up.
Tacoby Shellsbury was the brainchild of Sean Graham ( http://grahams.livejournal.com/ ) on 10/22/2007 3:47 PM. My brother, Alex Harm created the image for the T-shirt around 10/22/2007 5:23:27 PM.
I would if I cared Sean....stop spamming my site.
A site has gone up that asks you to donate your FREE Taco Bell taco from the World Series in hopes that Taco Bell will add that value up as a donation to help the victims of the California wildfires.
http://www.donateyourtaco.com
Donate your taco before 5pm on Tuesday!
For the record, that was not a spam and I am not Sean. That was setting the record straight.
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2007/10/tacoby_bellsbur.html