As the hardreading staff thumbed through its Boston Sunday Globe this morning, we couldn’t help but notice this double-truck ad in a special section called The Greater Debate, subhead “Who’s more responsible for this Patriots dynasty: Brady or Belichick?”
Here’s the body copy:
Notice that nowhere in the ad do the words “Bill Belichick” appear. But he’s there in every line, right? (Clever, that “Foxborough-hole,” eh?)
Which got the headscratching staff to thinking – are they paying Belichick? Or is this just an end-around?
So we hied ourselves to the Googletron and learned that this campaign has been in the news for several days now, both the print campaign and this TV spot.
That ad will air just before kickoff tonight. As far as we can tell, Belichick is not being paid.
Is he happy about this? Is he upset? Is he amused at the creativity displayed by ad agency Wieden + Kennedy?
When the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots went to the White House for the customary presidential pat on the back, here’s what they got to kick off the festivities.
Pats coach Bill Belichick isn’t the only one who gave Obama’s lame joke the thumbs down. Today’s Boston Herald is in Full Snit over the Deflategate dis.
It was a day that should have belonged to the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, but in a reversal of last February’s fortune it came to a dramatic and sudden halt.
Interception, Obama.
The president called a very different play as the champs gathered at the White House South Lawn to accept an attaboy for their Super Bowl victory.
But the egotist in chief made it all about him.
“I usually tell a bunch of jokes at these events,” he mused, “but with the Patriots in town I was worried that 11 of 12 of them would fall flat.”
That one sure did.
Back at the frosty local tabloid, sports scribe Karen Guregian also weighed in.
Just like so many people at this point, the leader of the free world can’t help but chuckle at what this is, and what it’s become. So right out of the gate, he set the tone for the Patriots visit by taking a poke at Deflategate, and it became the theme of the day with Pats tight end Rob Gronkowski later piling on . . .
When Gronk was asked if he had enjoyed himself before the president’s speech, perhaps with a beverage or two, Gronk drew on Obama’s Deflategate remark.
“No, there was no drinking,” he said. “Maybe the president was wasted from his deflate joke. We’re still wondering as an organization about that, right?”
(To be fair graf goes here)
To be fair, Guregian’s column was mostly about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s foot-dragging in his investigation into the pigskin rumpus. Regardless, look for the umbrage-industrial complex to continue Obama-bashing for awhile.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, Ben Volin’s piece about Pats players (as well as owner Robert Kraft and Belichick) visiting wounded vets at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was the main story today:
Over the past few years the hardreading staff has dutifully chronicled the staggering ad-vantage the Boston Globe has in selling newspaper ads in this town, but today’s edition is downright knee-buckling.
Say hello to the Globe’s 28-page Special Commemorative Section.
Grand Stand is chockablock with ads like this one:
And this one:
And this one:
(The hardshopping staff never heard of Big Y, but man, they gotta lotta stores.)
And there are a whole lot more ads where they came from.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, meanwhile, the thirsty local tabloid has no commemorative section, just this:
How do Boston’s nine 21st century championships rank?
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Fifteen years. Nine duck boat parades. All four sports.
The New England Sports High Renaissance of the 21st century continues.
So many memories. So many datelines: New Orleans, Houston, St. Louis, Jacksonville, Denver, Vancouver, Glendale, and, of course, right at home in Boston.
No city has ever enjoyed a period of sports success like this. So let’s do what no one else can do: Let’s rank them.
And so he does.
And so does the Boston Herald’s Steve Buckley . . . a day later.
Close-up:
The Boston Herald: A day late, a dollar-fifty short.
Boston’s collective hangover after yesterday’s Patriots Victory Parade is even more headpounding at the Boston Herald, which got stiffed today by the entire Kraft family.
Here’s what the Super Bowl champs ran in today’s Boston Globe:
And here’s what they ran in the thirsty local tabloid:
At least the Krafts spread the love on Monday, running this ad in both local dailies:
Dunno what the Herald did to tick them off in the interim but once again, Dis-advantage: Herald.
As the hardreading staff . . . Two-Cartoonist Town . . . and etc., it’s always interesting when the Wasserman/Holbert-Industrious Complex addresses the same topic on the same day.
Exhibit Umpteen was Tuesday’s post-Pats Super Ball.
As you might expect in the wake of yesterday’s New England Patriots blowtorching of the Indianapolis Colts, today’s Boston dailies both have full-page ads touting a wide variety of Patsaphernalia.
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As the hardreading staff has mentioned, the Globe consistently kicks the Herald’s ads, so it’s nice to see the thirsty local tabloid get some love. Even if it comes from unexpected places.
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 