Stop Acting Like Athols, Athol
Dear Athol Town Officials,
Hello, friends. Boston Daily here. Yesterday, we learned about your indignation over a Comcast ad that used the name of your town as a PG-rated replacement for a part of the human anatomy.
Today, we’ve learned that Comcast has apologized to you and pulled the print and TV campaign. And if this satisfies you, you’re not thinking this through.
When we read yesterday’s news, we had to Google map your town to make sure we knew where it’s located. (For the record, it’s here.) We tried to find an image of a “Welcome to Athol” sign in Google image search, and found only two.
Clearly, you have a public relations problem.
But then Comcast came in and advertised your town for free. Suddenly, the name of your town became a punchline. People would come and get their picture taken with the “Welcome to Athol” sign. It would be a whole new beginning for you.
But you didn’t take this golden opportunity. Because you humorlessly pointed out the town’s name is pronounced “ATH-ul” and demanded Comcast stop mentioning your name in its ads, the interest will slowly fade away and the rest of Massachusetts will forget where you are.
Bad call, Athols.
Regards,
Boston Daily
March 7th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Um, Comcast Sports Net has been running this ad for MONTHS. They’re just now noticing it? I loved how the Herald waited until the last line of their story to admit that the ad had been appearing in their paper.
March 7th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Hi Amy: Athol just can’t get a break with it’s name, and here’s another, but different example. I don’t know if it’s still there, but in the early ’90s, there was one state road you used to take to the town that came in from the south, and the town line sign “Athol, established in year…” had elegant, clever graffiti on it. Someone had spraypainted a capital R before the A, and a capital E after the L. I’ll let you spell it out. It was like that for at least a couple years.