Writer Says White Sox Strike Out With New Commercials

Two new White Sox commercials via Energy BBDO, Chicago, created to reinforce the team's "Show the Passion. Share the Swagger" campaign, are "something of a letdown in comparison" to two previously created teaser commercials, according to Lewis Lazare of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. The new spots, set to debut Monday, "take us right into the ballpark where tens of thousands of screaming fans are watching a game." In the first spot, a young boy holds a sign "encouraging [1B] Paul Konerko to run," and Konerko "responds with a sign telling the boy he doesn't run. Then we watch Konerko hit a ball and start running the bases as he holds up another sign announcing he trots." Lazare: "Trots? We suppose this is meant to be a funny way of expressing Konerko's style of rounding the bases. ... This 'trot' business didn't strike us as remotely funny. Or terribly clever." A second spot has OF Nick Swisher "behaving rather spastically as he exults over [P] Javier Vazquez's skill at pitching strikes." Lazare: "It struck us as more clumsy and humorless than the Konerko execution" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/28).