August 4, 2006, - 1:35 pm
Men “The New Women” Alert: Derek Jeter, Avon Lady & Pink NHL Jerseys
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On this site, we constantly lament the feminization of America’s men and the masculinization of America’s women.
The latest in the “Men-the New Women” saga are two disturbing chapters in the sports category:
* NHL Goes Pink: First, they took the fighting out of hockey, and now they’re inserting the pink. Both bad moves.
The NHL is trying to garner more female fans by enlisting Reebok to produce pink “female-friendly” NHL hockey jerseys (sometimes referred to in hockey jargon as “sweaters”–but they aren’t really sweaters) for each of the NHL’s 30 teams. No blue is allowed.
A Toronto Maple Leafs hockey jersey with pink striping patterns, logo, numbers, and letters? They think this will attract more women fans to the NHL than the male fans it scares away? Yup, that’s the laughable plan, which is not supposed to be funny.
The NHL and Reebok say that even though the focus of the new “apparel” is the “untapped women’s market,” men can purchase them. Yeah, maybe men in San Francisco, DuPont Circle, and the back of Elton John’s tour bus.
We can’t wait for the day when clueless, PC NHL marketers force NHL players to actually wear these silly pink jerseys on the blue line. “Pretty in Pink Night at Madison Square Garden?”
We predict that the pink jerseys will be a market failure. What’s next–the official tampon of the NHL? Don’t put it past the League.
We’ve already written about –equally as silly. More about the no-so-pretty in pink NHL jerseys here.
* Derek Jeter, Avon Lady: Remember the Avon Lady? Well, the Avon Lady’s new name is Derek. As in, Major League Baseball’s Derek Jeter.
Not only is Jeter promoting a new men’s “fragrance,” he’s pushing a new line of Avon men’s beauty products bearing his name. The “fragrance”–which Jeter says he’s been very involved in creating . . . along with his mother and sister–is a blend including notes of chilled grapefruit.
Memo to Derek: Men don’t wear “fragrances.” They wear “cologne.” And they don’t wear fruit scents. Unless, again, they are planning a trip to the back of Elton John’s tour bus.
As for his “beauty” products, we doubt they’ll be very popular in the dugout. It reminds us of the old Avon slogan–“Avon, You Never Looked So Good”–which apparently needs to be reinvented.
New slogan: “Avon, You Never Looked So UnMasculine.”
Tags: America, Avon, baseball, beauty products, Debbie Schlussel On, Derek Jeter, DuPont, Elton John, hockey, Madison Square Garden, Major, Major League Baseball, NHL, Reebok, San Francisco, sports category, Toronto Maple Leafs
Pete Rose and Carl Yastremski should proide Jeter with a good, swift kick to the ass for this lame, foo-foo crap he’s endorsing. This “Drive” fragrance ain’t no Aqua Velva!
BTW – Nice haircut, Jeter.
Yiddish Steel on August 4, 2006 at 4:08 pm