How ‘Bout Those Cougars Television Commercials?
Honesty didn’t turn out to be the best policy for Washington State University.
With football season approaching, WSU launched a series of TV ads that featured crunching collisions between tacklers and ball carriers.
“Boycott TV Violence,” were the words that flashed on the screen, followed after a moment for reflection by: “Come See the Cougs in Person.”
Like TV networks promoting their professional and collegiate football coverage, and like sellers of videos that highlight physically jarring plays, WSU’s ads were truthfully marketing aspects of the game they thought would draw fans to Pullman and Martin Stadium this fall:
Hard-hitting, big-time, Pac-10 football. You fans like to see 300-pound behemoths slam into each other like locomotives? Come watch in person.
Public reaction - much of it probably from people who wouldn’t be following Cougar football at home or on television anyway - was as angry as a wide receiver after a missed interference call.
Violence is too serious an issue to be made light of, people complained in letters and e-mail messages. WSU officials responded by apologizing, calling the campaign a mistake and pulling the ads off the air.
What’s going on here? Has society lost its sense of humor altogether? Or is WSU simply callous and insensitive about a serious social issue? Or, insensitive or not, if the ads deserve a negative response, should that task be left to the people at whom they were aimed and who can speak through their wallets?
Job qualifications
John Hentze’s supervisor at the Department of Social and Health Services considers him an excellent administrator, which probably explains why he put Hentze in charge of liaison between the agency and day care providers concerned about welfare reform.
But it isn’t administrative ability that has some of those providers upset, it’s Hentze’s criminal record. To be specific, he was convicted of assault against a 12-year-old girl.
Hentze maintains his innocence. His conviction was based on a so-called Alford plea in which he acknowledged the prosecution had enough evidence to convict him.
Many providers and social workers within DSHS think he should be dismissed, but he’s still on the job - at least pending a report from two DSHS investigators who looked into the matter.
What’s your reaction?
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