04/24/24
July 21, 2006
This is not the blog you are looking for. You can go about your business.: New ownership of the St.Louis Blues, and specifically St. Louis Blues Enterprises, a new division of the team that will handle the business operations, have hired an ad agency, Schupp Co., to publish a blog under the guise of a fan blog. [via => via]
But the site and its blogger are nothing more than a marketing tool for the hockey team, a fact hidden on the Web site and in Schupp's campaign so far. Well, it's not really "hidden" if it says "Copyright © 2006 St. Louis Blues" at the bottom of the main page...
posted by grum@work at 03:56 PM on July 21, 2006
True, but the narrative implies it has no official connection to the team.
posted by garfield at 04:01 PM on July 21, 2006
That's hidden enough for me to declare it all a pack of lies. That is so ridiculous and shady to have some PR machine pretend to be an every day fan.
posted by bperk at 04:02 PM on July 21, 2006
Hmmmm all the comments seem to be anonymous and posted in succession. Wonder who is doing that? The deception is a little too transparent.
posted by trox at 04:10 PM on July 21, 2006
Pretty creepy. Can almost smell the slime dripping off of it.
posted by GoBirds at 04:14 PM on July 21, 2006
Oh, yes, my faith in humanity has been trampled yet again. Much like when I discovered that nicotine and alcohol really would not make all the beautiful babes fight it out to get to me. Frankly, it just looks like good old-fashioned advertising brought up-to-date to a new generation and newer form of distribution. By the way, did you know that Catherine Zeta Jones once called and left me a personal voicemail on my T-Mobile phone? Me and a million other people.
posted by graymatters at 05:06 PM on July 21, 2006
Somebody paid for that web design?
posted by rcade at 05:10 PM on July 21, 2006
and that bloggerese
posted by garfield at 05:27 PM on July 21, 2006
It's greasy and lousy and if this is how the new St. Louis management plans to treat its fans, starting turning in your season tickets right now. It's not that it sucks (and oh Lord, does it suck). It's that these assholes could have found any number of people to create an actual blog with some semblance of control over it without it being a complete sham. Instead, they took the slide and forked over dough to a roomful of suits and told them to fake enthusiasm. Nice to know how much you believe in us, Mr. Checketts.
posted by wfrazerjr at 05:28 PM on July 21, 2006
Out of curiosity, anyone have any idea how hard it would be to put up a site that looked very similar to that one and call it thetruebluerevolution.com? I suppose I could do it at blogspot.com.
posted by wfrazerjr at 05:29 PM on July 21, 2006
Deadspin, a fake blog in itself Is that why the comments are so goddamn funny? More power to them then. I get the nervous shits everytime I post there because I feel like I'm bringing the average funny down.
posted by yerfatma at 06:46 PM on July 21, 2006
That site is freaking me out, man!
posted by wingnut4life at 08:08 PM on July 21, 2006
This is propaganda at its best...
posted by myshtigo at 08:14 PM on July 21, 2006
As a Blues fan... I got nothing. Totally shameful.
posted by igottheblues at 02:29 AM on July 22, 2006
The Blues have been in St. Louis for a couple of generations now. They have a real history in St. Louis. People have grown up with them, won and lost with them (they may not have ever won a cup, but they've had some pretty solid teams over the years). Do you mean to tell me they don't have any fans willing to start a genuine opinion-style blog about them? (Back In Blue looks like little more than a newswire joint. Maybe that could be taken over through aggressive commenting?) They could even approach someone, a local blogger/hockey fan or some other local smartass, and say, "hey, would you mind doing this?" There are plenty of hockey blogs out there they could draw examples from, in every other market in the league. Why do these corporate bullshit sites all have to sound like some 12-year-old chearleader on the company payroll? It never ceases to amaze me that that's what the suits think their customers really want. It's kind of insulting. If I lived in St. Louis, I'd start a blog about how bad this blog is. I'd never hurt for material.
posted by chicobangs at 03:12 AM on July 22, 2006
Chico, I'd do exactly that if I had any design skillz at all, but I think putting up an alternative through blogger.com or something would be just as bad. Trust me -- I'd love to stick it to these bastards.
posted by wfrazerjr at 08:22 AM on July 22, 2006
and for you deadspinners...It will be interesting to see if the St. Louis-leaning Deadspin, a fake blog in itself (what, you didn't know?), picks up on this story. The irony would be so heavy that it would likely create a black hole big enough to suck up Will Leitch's ego, if not the Universe or something smaller.