Brought To You By: AmerenUE
Here's a thing that I don't think I could possibly ever be made to understand.
I was at the NHL hockey game last week and there is this thing called a "power play" in hockey apparently. I don't know what that is, but that's not the thing I can never understand. Heck, I half expect Donruss or Ron or some dude who cares a dang about hockey to set me straight on that in the comments section below. THE THING I DON'T UNDERSTAND AND PROBABLY NEVER COULD: This "power play" segment of the game is sponsored by AmerenUE.
Now I know some of you are not in or from St. Louis or Missouri or Central Illinois and perhaps you've never even been here or heard about this place. So let me explain: AmerenUE is the local provider of electric power to the regions mentioned above. Yes, it's the electric company.
Setting aside for just a second the usual gripes (all of which are gripes with which I mostly agree) about product placement and sponsorship and advertising in and for every little aspect of everything, especially at major sporting events, why does the electric company need to sponsor anything? Why on EARTH is the electric company advertising their product as a contributor to some aspect of an NHL game? I understand, the word "power" is part of "power play." Very clever, you got the power company to advertise on something that had to do with power. Kudos, St. Louis franchise NHL advertising execs! I couldn't really believe my eyes (or by proxy, my brain) when I saw this, though. What choice have we got on power companies? The answer is NONE. So why the advertisement at the hockey game? Senseless!
I'm willing to cope with the notion that I might be a little bit crazy, and I'd remain sufficiently without frazzle by the suggestion from any party that I was. However, I maintain that I am not so crazy as to believe that a company with a veritable monopoly on a mostly-mandatory service doesn't have better things to do with its money (which it garners, of course, at the hands of everyone that pays an electrical bill, which at my last count was some 1.1 million people in the St. Louis area) than sponsor aspects of a professional hockey game. Does anyone remember early December 2006? How about mid-July 2006? Yes, those were the times when FEMA had to be called in to the St. Louis area because so many people were without power that our city was declared to be in a state of national emergency. I saw power company trucks from as far away as Omaha, Nebraska with my own eyes, driving around the St. Louis area helping. So, we had to call in power companies from other areas, and FEMA itself, that's fine, and it was a state of genuine emergency, during part of which I myself was without power (and therefore heat, in the middle of a snowstorm). Is it so unreasonable to assume that whatever money is spent advertising at Blues games could have been better spent on, you know, the prescribed duties of the power company (which, again, are paid for by the very people who needed their help, and in some cases went without it for weeks, back during those emergency times)?
I rack my brain trying to determine the last time I was so befuddled at something.
I was at the NHL hockey game last week and there is this thing called a "power play" in hockey apparently. I don't know what that is, but that's not the thing I can never understand. Heck, I half expect Donruss or Ron or some dude who cares a dang about hockey to set me straight on that in the comments section below. THE THING I DON'T UNDERSTAND AND PROBABLY NEVER COULD: This "power play" segment of the game is sponsored by AmerenUE.
Now I know some of you are not in or from St. Louis or Missouri or Central Illinois and perhaps you've never even been here or heard about this place. So let me explain: AmerenUE is the local provider of electric power to the regions mentioned above. Yes, it's the electric company.
Setting aside for just a second the usual gripes (all of which are gripes with which I mostly agree) about product placement and sponsorship and advertising in and for every little aspect of everything, especially at major sporting events, why does the electric company need to sponsor anything? Why on EARTH is the electric company advertising their product as a contributor to some aspect of an NHL game? I understand, the word "power" is part of "power play." Very clever, you got the power company to advertise on something that had to do with power. Kudos, St. Louis franchise NHL advertising execs! I couldn't really believe my eyes (or by proxy, my brain) when I saw this, though. What choice have we got on power companies? The answer is NONE. So why the advertisement at the hockey game? Senseless!
I'm willing to cope with the notion that I might be a little bit crazy, and I'd remain sufficiently without frazzle by the suggestion from any party that I was. However, I maintain that I am not so crazy as to believe that a company with a veritable monopoly on a mostly-mandatory service doesn't have better things to do with its money (which it garners, of course, at the hands of everyone that pays an electrical bill, which at my last count was some 1.1 million people in the St. Louis area) than sponsor aspects of a professional hockey game. Does anyone remember early December 2006? How about mid-July 2006? Yes, those were the times when FEMA had to be called in to the St. Louis area because so many people were without power that our city was declared to be in a state of national emergency. I saw power company trucks from as far away as Omaha, Nebraska with my own eyes, driving around the St. Louis area helping. So, we had to call in power companies from other areas, and FEMA itself, that's fine, and it was a state of genuine emergency, during part of which I myself was without power (and therefore heat, in the middle of a snowstorm). Is it so unreasonable to assume that whatever money is spent advertising at Blues games could have been better spent on, you know, the prescribed duties of the power company (which, again, are paid for by the very people who needed their help, and in some cases went without it for weeks, back during those emergency times)?
I rack my brain trying to determine the last time I was so befuddled at something.