The "point" of the ATP Tour's new ad campaign, titled
"New Balls Please," aims "to familiarize the public" with
several of the Tour's younger players, as it is "eager to
prepare its fans for the day when established stars" retire,
according to an ATP official cited by Kevin Modesti of the
L.A. DAILY NEWS. But Modesti wrote that there seems to be
"no use, the ATP must think, in waiting until the young"
players "accomplish something worth celebrating." The
campaign features Jan-Michael Gambill, Lleyton Hewitt, Tommy
Haas, Gustavo Kuerten, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nicolas Lapentti
and Roger Federer, and Modesti adds, "Don't feel bad if
you've never heard of half of them. Each is 23 or younger
and Federer has never won a pro tournament." The ATP
"apparently thinks it's hopelessly old-school to let
athletes find fame and infamy based on their results, which
is the quaint way sports used to work, before the NBA
pioneered a different idea." Michael Chang said of the
players featured in the ads, "I feel if it's deserved, they
should be there. Obviously, for the game to survive, you
need to have new faces and new talent" (L.A. DAILY NEWS,
7/30). In Toronto, Tom Tebbutt notes the campaign's "New
Balls Please" slogan "sounds suspiciously like the 'Only the
ball should bounce'" tag from a recent campaign for Berlei
sports bras featuring Anna Kournikova. Tebbutt: "Maybe the
men's campaign would be more apt if titled 'Keeping up with
Anna.'" Pete Sampras said the ATP's campaign is "not my cup
of tea. Those guys are the future of the game, but they
probably could have come up with a better slogan" (Toronto
GLOBE & MAIL, 7/31). In Toronto, Mary Ormsby writes that
Sampras found the slogan "distasteful" (TORONTO STAR, 7/31).
The ad campaign continues to run in USA TODAY (THE DAILY).
PURPLE HAZE: Univ. of Toronto business professor David
Dunne said the purple-painted courts for the Tennis Masters
Series-Canada (see THE DAILY, 7/24) "smacks of desperation.
People don't switch channels to tennis because of the colour
of the court." But in Toronto, Tony Wong wrote Tennis
Canada has "already garnered much media attention for what
amounts to a $20,000 paint job" (TORONTO STAR, 7/30).
