On Sunday, September 28th the Brewers partner with Northwestern Mutual, Majestic Athletic and Coins of America for a fan giveaway during the last home game at Miller Park against the Cubs.
So, I get the "shirts off their backs" part of the promotion that includes a charity clothing drive to gather winter coats for the needy. But, giving fans State of Illinois quarters, that were issued in 2003, to 10,000 fans sounds like trouble to me. What's the point? These are not newly minted quarters, they have nothing to do with Wisconsin (unless there's a secession movement afoot), and why 10,000?
Does anybody with the Brewers organization remember Steve Dahl's Disco Demolition back in 1979 at Comisky Park? Was anybody in the front office marketing department actually alive in 1979 when mayhem and the Chicago Police Department ruled for several hours as they tried to restore order as disco albums rained down from the stands?
With Dahl leading the “Disco Sucks” chant, an estimated 90,000 fans and listeners showed up to storm the field and joined him in setting fire to thousands of disco records. The event put Dahl on the radio "map" in Chicago and the rest of the country, and earned him the reputation of being one of the most influential DJs in rock history.
Dahl came to Chicago from Detroit where I was a teenager and a a cardholding member of D.R.E.A.D. Detroit Rockers Engaged in the Abolition of Disco. Another of a series of Detroit hard rock radio station promotions involving vinyl and fire.
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That was the seventies, and you'd think that marketing and promotions folks would have learned something by now.
So, who knows where the Crew will end up as of Saturday night, but I'm guessing there will be a few fans that blame the Cubs for the predicament that the Brewers find themselves in right now. Giving those fans an opportunity to vent by handing them a handy little projectile seems okay...as long as they end up being thrown away from other fans.
