Ahead of the new NBA season, official broadcaster Fox Sports launched a provocative subway campaign in New York asking whether the city’s home team Knicks were ‘Hopeful or Hopeless’.
Fox Sports 1 (FS1) rolled out a brash, bold and controversial campaign, led by orange-and-blue subway train wraps on the Grand Central to Times Square line asking fans to pick a side: “Are they ‘hopeful’ or ‘hopeless’ about the Knicks’ upcoming season?
As well as the brightly coloured and provocative wrap work around the outside of the subway cars, inside the trains provocative seat copy invites fans to ‘Sit here if you blame Dolan’ or ‘Sit here if you blame Melo’ (references to team owner James Dolan and former star forward Carmelo Anthony).
Other in-train signage suggests that “The high point of the last 25 years was the movie Eddie”: a Knicks-themed flop from 1996 that for some reason paired Whoopi Goldberg and Frank Langella.
On the ‘Hopeful’ side of the campaign, messaging on the opposite side of the train, includes copy asserting that “Porzingis was designed in a lab” (referencing the Knicks’ 7-foot-3 scoring star Kristaps Porzingis).
On the shuttle that runs between grand central and Times Square lmao pic.twitter.com/iWMrHJijU7
— Jared (@JMintzHoops) October 2, 2017
Maybe this is like Triangle marketing… pic.twitter.com/3DVfNBIKCL
— Mara Averick (@dataandme) October 3, 2017
The campaign reflects the fact that, after four straight losing seasons, the departure of their long-time star baller and current 500-to-1 odds of winning the 2017-18 NBA championship, there is little confidence in the New York Knicks ahead of the new season.
But, after briefly leveraging the controversial campaign buzz, the broadcaster pulled the campaign after just one day.
“Today, FS1 featured statements on New York City subway cars intended to reflect the distinct emotions and opinions of passionate sports fans, ” the network’s campaign PR statement said. “We regret the tone and are removing the content in its entirety.”
Comment:
The campaign certainly generated plenty of buzz amongst New Yorker and the city’s media.
The creative’s ‘hopeless’ tagline generated plenty of press coverage, commuter chat and social comment.
Perhaps the plan from the start was to generate controversy and then pull the creative after a quick run?
The Knicks campaign is actually part of a broader FS1 initiative focusing on contemporary city sports topics.
During the campaign’s very brief run, the Knicks lost their first pre-season game last night 115-107 to local rival and fellow NBA struggler Brooklyn Nets.
It certainly looks more hopeless than hopeful.
Links:
FS1
http://www.foxsports.com/watch/fs1
https://twitter.com/fs1?lang=en
https://www.facebook.com/FOXSports1/
https://www.instagram.com/foxsports
