August 2, 2007
A grand slam planned for Bonds - The Denver Post
Sushi chain's ad sticks a chopstick in baseball's Bonds
Source: The Denver Post
By: A.J. Miranda
When baseball slugger Barry Bonds - one home run shy of tying the all-time record entering Wednesday night's game - hits his next one out of the park, a Colorado sushi chain will be ready with congratulatory full-page newspaper ads.
But they won't be for Bonds.
"Congratulations Hank Aaron on 755 home runs," the ad for Hapa Sushi Grill says about Hammerin' Hank's record, set three decades ago. Below, small print reads: "Organic beef and chicken. No added steroids."
The ad pokes fun at the image of modern major-league baseball as a haven for players who use performance-enhancing drugs. Though Bonds has never admitted steroid use, much has been made of his radical gain in muscle mass after the age of 35.
Van Grack said the ad fits with Hapa's approach toward edgier advertising. A Hapa TV ad shows adolescent boys buying a hamburger, then setting it ablaze on a neighbor's doorstep.
"We don't do traditional ads," Van Grack said. "But we try to have a positive message."
Response to the ad concept was overwhelmingly positive from sports marketers, advertisers and fans.
Robert Tuchman, president and founder of sports-marketing firm TSE, said he'd be more likely to eat at Hapa now, calling the ad smart and funny.
"People like to say, 'Advertising doesn't affect me.' But it's been proven to work. That's why there is advertising," Tuchman said.
The ad has the potential to offend, but marketer and researcher Bob Mazerov of Mazerov Research said that's not the point.
"Anything that takes a step out of the ordinary has the potential of offending people," he said. "And if it does, they're probably not the kind of people who would be in the audience for that restaurant anyway."
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