ESPN controversy

[Mickey'sApprentice]

ESPN has decided to not air a commercial for a catholic children's hospital in St. Louis because it mentions Jesus.

This video shows some of the controversy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs8OEeUvXKc

OK, so let's try to keep this within the DIS guidelines by ONLY discussing whether this will be a big deal and how ESPN and Disney will eventually respond to this controversy.

Do you think people will boycott Disney Co. and Disney parks because of this?

**Moderators, please excuse me if this goes over the line, but this appears to be legitimate Disney news.

 

[Son of Gadsden]

I'd say most people are probably unaware that Disney owns ESPN.

Most people I meet have no idea how much stuff Disney owns.

Even if they did, what other sports network are you going to watch? Fox Sports? BAHA.

I don't think it'll have much of an impact on park goers. Disney says "Christmas" and doesn't spell it "Xmas", at least not from what I've seen. So it's not like they're drumming up a ridiculous amount of criticism from the Christian community.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

I mentioned this to my husband.

He reminded me of the Candlelight processional and other things that shows that Disney parks takes a different stance.

 

[Castle2Castle]

OK, so let's try to keep this within the DIS guidelines by ONLY discussing whether this will be a big deal and how ESPN and Disney will eventually respond to this controversy.

Do you think people will boycott Disney Co. and Disney parks because of this?

Nope. Coverage so far seems pretty limited to the "War on Christmas!" fringe who seem no less insulted by Happy Holidays than the people they criticize reacting to Jesus, etc. It may not gain any steam to really garner national attention, but even if it does, it seems like something the vast majority of people will shrug off and forget about pretty quickly.

Even among the aforementioned group, there's plenty that Disney itself embraces through their Christmas specials and events in the park that should outweigh one ad in one market; for that matter, the decision to reject the ad may have been at the local/regional level rather than from ESPN corporate.

 

[glvsav37]

ESPN still exists??? (Sarcasm)

I have not watched anything that channel in over 6 years. Their sports "coverage" is abysmal and they jump around so fast form highlight to highlight....and add in the insane amount of on screen graphics makes my head spin

Their shows are nothing more then washed up athletes yelling at each other 24 hours a day.


And most importantly....they don't cover hockey.

 

[MiramarQE]

And most importantly....they don't cover hockey.

Hear! Hear! (more sarcasm)

But as others say - tempest in a teacup - gone in 10 minutes, and Disney is more than fair (near as I can tell) to Christians.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

As a lifelong avid sports fan of everything I can get my eyes and hands on...

Espn is not worth even talking about, let alone watching.

Horrid...sensationalized garbage... Leap over the shark when they paid that midge David stern for his terrible 10 iq league.

Just how it is...all smoke and no fire.

Just show the game and play the damn highlights.

But then again...all TV is garbage.

Try finding the weather on the weather channel

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

And...ESPN has reversed themselves and has allowed the ad.

That didn't take long.

 

[Castle2Castle]

Just guessing, but I suspect it was a lower level person at the local/regional level that made the decision trying to play it way too safe/PC, and higher ups corrected it once they were made aware.

 

[wiigirl]

Just guessing, but I suspect it was a lower level person at the local/regional level that made the decision trying to play it way too safe/PC, and higher ups corrected it once they were made aware.

My thoughts too...

 

[ErinTwinmom]

I do think everyone everyone with cable knows espn is owned by Disney on some level. At least in my market (st Louis in fact) everytime they have to renew with cable or dish, the cable company's run a ton of commercials letting you know.

 

[doconeill]

Just guessing, but I suspect it was a lower level person at the local/regional level that made the decision trying to play it way too safe/PC, and higher ups corrected it once they were made aware.

There isn't really a local/regional level with ESPN.

At the local level, the local cable provider sells "overlay" (not sure the official term) commercials, which under agreement with the network allows them to insert them in place of certain national commercials. That's why some commercials seems to end and then you see the end of another commercial - they don't often get the timing quite right on the overlays.

This would have been at the national level. However, someone at the corporate level could have changed the decision.

As for boycotts, there have been many announced boycotts of the parks in the past...and none had any noticeable impact.