Above is a picture I just took off my own TV, showing a commercial for Saturday night's March Badness pay-per-view show. The only problem is that Ken Shamrock has been suspended after testing positive for steroids and is no longer on the card.
Yes, it's true that the ad says "*Card Subject to change." So maybe that makes it OK to advertise Shamrock's presence on the show, even though he won't be there. But it seems to me that a week after it became public knowledge that Shamrock was suspended, the folks running the March Badness promotion have had enough time to change the commercial to accurately reflect that the MMA main event is Bobby Lashley vs. Jason Guida, not Lashley vs. Shamrock.
The TV ads for March Badness have provided an interesting look into what the promoters think will sell. This is, first and foremost, Roy Jones' show. His company is the promoter and he's boxing in the main event, against Omar Sheika. But my sense from the advertising they've been running is that the promotion thinks that playing up the MMA side of the show is the best way to draw in pay-per-view buyers.
I like both MMA and boxing, and I'd like to see joint shows succeed. I just wish the commercials would accurately reflect what the pay-per-view buyers are purchasing.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MDS - The problem is that the boxing event will be contested on a high level, and the MMA fight will look like 2 bulls in a china shop.
How many televised boxing & MMA bouts are they supposed to have? Is there another MMA bout?
I'm going to the event (live about 60 miles away from Pensacola) and I know Lashley is fighting Jason Guida as well as Jeff Monson vs Roy Nelson. Not sure about the boxing side other than Jones Jr vs Sheika.
This may not be the fault of the promotion--a lot of times the local cable company will stick a promo clip for upcoming events like this during a spot where they have unsold ad space. When I was living in South Carolina, the local cable company was horrible about keeping PPV commercials up to date during their late night programming. I used to watch Hawaii Five-O reruns on one of the local channels late night Saturdays and it wasn't uncommon to see ads for PPVs that had long since past. It wouldn't surprise me if they're still running ads for the De La Hoya/Hopkins PPV to this day...
Even if RJ's people sent out a replacement clip, it might not get in the ad rotation if someone is asleep at the switch. RJ's been promoting the event all over the place, including the clip of the press conference 'pull apart' so to me it looks more like an oversight on someone's part and less an attempt to dupe the viewers.