Clearly, I'm not ad man or marketing exec. I mean, I still have my soul and everything. But while I don't pretend to know what the perfect ad campaign would be for any organization (see: previous GT marketing efforts such as the 13 minute lifetime of GT Wikipedia), do know a shitty P.R. scheme when I see one. And beginning back with the embarrassing and misdirected "Blue Revolution" and continuing on almost every year since then, including the also-embarrassing "beg for forgiveness" ads of a couple years ago, we've given the Blues more than their share of grief for ad campaigns that miss the mark (we even campaigned them to change the slogan from "Whatever It Takes" to simply "Whatever.")
Don't get me started on that "You're the Missing Piece of the Puzzle" nightmare.
But this year I think they finally got it right. As you can see for yourself in this first 30 second job from the Blues own website (since they apparently don't want us to embed the video and get them more views), they realize that the focus needs to get away from silliness like white skates and frosted tip hairdos and focus on the games. They aren't kids anymore, they say, and it's time to realize that every game counts.
Well, no shit, but I do think it's important for the team, from the "no longer kids" up to coaching to management to ownership to acknowledge that the slow starts of the last two years are simply not acceptable this season. If the focus becomes winning the games, and winning every game, even if it's being played in October, this team has a chance to take the next step. I think it was important for the marketing effort to at least admit that the team phoned in a lot of the early contests the last few years and that the effort will be to change that this year.
The big question now, of course, is whether this is just advertising bullshit or if the Blues really are dedicated to winning every game.