Desperate Housewives Meets M N Football

[ladygreek]

The whole thing just didn't make sense to me from a marketing standpoint. What was the message? To whom was it aimed? What was the desired result? I am unable to answer any of these questions from it.

Oh, and Toujours, thanks for the explanation. I had not heard about the previous incident, so now looking back on it they were pretty funny.

[Steeltrap]

Dungy: 'MNF' intro racially offensive
The Associated Press / Associated Press
Posted: 21 minutes ago

If ABC hoped to generate a little bit more buzz for "Monday Night Football" and "Desperate Housewives," its steamy intro to the Dallas-Philadelphia game sure did the trick.

Two days after the network aired the segment featuring Eagles star receiver Terrell Owens and actress Nicollette Sheridan, coaches and players were still talking about it.
Monday Night Mayhem

Don't throw in the towel
Randy Hill wonders, are you ready for some sex and controversy?

Video
• Max: No apology necessary
Stories
• FCC disappointed in 'desperate' MNF
• ABC apologizes for racy intro



Reaction ranged from amusement to anger. Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy found it racially offensive.

"To me that's the first thing I thought of as an African-American," Dungy said Wednesday.

"I think it's stereotypical in looking at the players, and on the heels of the Kobe Bryant incident I think it's very insensitive. I don't think that they would have had Bill Parcells or Andy Reid or one of the owners involved in that," he added, a reference to the coaches in the game.

ABC's intro showed Sheridan wearing only a towel and provocatively asking Owens to skip the game for her as the two stood alone in a locker room. She drops the towel and jumps into Owens' arms. Owens is black and Sheridan is white.

"If that's what we have to do to get ratings, I'd rather not get them," Dungy said. "I realize that ratings pays us in this league, but if that's what we have to do, I'm willing to take a pay cut."

Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb wasn't quite as vocal, saying he didn't find the segment offensive and believed people were overreacting. (Owens wasn't at practice Wednesday, excused for what the team said were personal reasons.)

"Some people do different things," McNabb said. "Not saying that my wife would allow me to do that, but it's just something that was done, and you move on."


Poll

Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, had a different view, questioning ABC's judgment in airing the scene.

"I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud," he said.

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. The FCC will review complaints and decide whether or not to open an investigation that could result in a fine against the network.

"It would seem to me that while we get a lot of broadcasting companies complaining about indecency enforcement, they seem to be continuing to be willing to keep the issue at the forefront, keep it hot and steamy in order to get financial gains and the free advertising it provides," Powell told CNBC.

The segment drew complaints from viewers and the NFL. ABC Sports apologized for using the introduction to promote its show, "Desperate Housewives." Dungy's comment, however, was the first that mentioned race. He also said the segment played off stereotypes of athletes.

"That athletes are sexual predators and that that stuff is more important than what's going on on the field. That he (Owens) was more concerned with that than the game, that's a terrible message to send," Dungy said. "I'm particularly sensitive to that. It could have been any player and I would have been outraged, but being an African-American, it particularly hurt me."

A decade ago Dungy was outspoken about the lack of black coaches in the NFL. There are currently five, including Dungy and Lovie Smith, whose Bears will face Dungy's Colts on Sunday.

"It shouldn't have happened, and I couldn't believe it did happen," Smith said.

Dungy said ABC had asked the Colts, who played on Monday night last week, "to do some things I thought would make our players look a little bit silly (although) nothing like that."

"We kind of declined," he said.

Some players were also shocked.

"My mouth dropped when I saw that," said Washington tight end Mike Sellers, who was watching the game with his wife. "I said, 'Did they actually plan this on TV?"'

But at least one of his teammates wasn't bothered.

"I thought it was kind of cool, myself," linebacker Marcus Washington said. "I enjoyed the skit."

[ladygreek]

Well I guess they did get their desired result. A little more buzz.

[TonyB06]

I'm a big Tony Dungy fan (on many levels, not just football) but I think there is some "reaching" going on here.

Terell Owens is the most controversial, and best wide-out in football right now; it makes sense that he'd be in the MNF show open. I don't watch Desperate Housewives, but I hear there are no black women on it, so any star from that show would be white. The show open was a bad idea more because it had nothing to do with football, than its racial/sexual overtones, IMO. Given that ABC was apparently set to go forward with a shameless, tacky cross-promotion, it was likely to be along the lines of what we saw.

As for the allegedly "outraged" NFL deal with scantily-clad cheerleaders you've pimped on NFL sidelines every week since like, forever, and then holla at me about your "moral outrage."

As for Dungy's Kobe comparison, dude damn near committed a crime; that's a long way from anything we saw on MNF; so, while I see the comparison he was trying to make, it's not on-point, IMO.

[WenD08]

check the ratings after this Sunday's episode. yeah, ABC apologized but if the ratings go up and stay up, privately, they'll say it was worth it.
it reminds of Calvin Klein and his racy ads. big controversy means big dollars

[STL_Lady]

Lately in my marketing class my professor has been talking about this commercial. He showed it one day in class but unfortunately I was late. But he says it is rumored that ABC already had an apology ready when they created this commercial. So basically they were doing it to create some more buzz around Desperate Housewives. My professor also said that she wasn't naked in front of the football player, she actually had a halter top on but they airbrushed it out in editing. I can understand why parents would be so upset about that being shown during primetime and while most children are awake. But really it's not that big of a deal to me. Barbie's have bare backs, GI Joe's have bare backs, and SpongeBob square pants is sometimes missing pants. Kids are gonna see some parts of the human body. Unless it is was a breast, penis, vagina, or human ass. I really don't see the big deal. But I am not a parent so of course I may not understand.