Black Sox Season Ticket Marketing Focuses on Long "Ding Dong" Chamberlain's Long Ding Dong
New ads prove team is desperate to sell tickets
Long 'Ding Dong' may
attract new female fans
The strategy comes in part because the team traded away its two biggest stars, starter Bernie Stuart and shortstop Badr "Yogi" Isam. Devoid of any other marquee names, the marketing department apparently realized they needed a different strategy.
The head of marketing, May I. Tutchem, decided that with the team likely to once again finish in last place, male fans were unlikely to be interested in season ticket plans. "So we figured, why not appeal to the ladies?" she said. "It has long been known that Long got his nickname because his ding dong is, in fact, quite long. So why not capitalize on that with a series of ads that hint at Long being, shall we say, very, very well-endowed!"
And with that, Tutchem unveiled the first ad:
Old Ding Dong, now 36 and in his 20th season, was claimed in the Rule 5 draft from Omaha, and made the team after an outstanding spring training.
The team has so far sold 13,490 season tickets, a 20% drop off of last season's total of just under 17,000. Whether Ding Dong's ding dong can reverse that trend remains to be seen.
