Bob CollinsThat the St. Paul Saints, who clinched first place in promotion smarts years ago, haven’t had a Millennial Night, is likely not an oversight. The franchise knows a third-rail when it sees one.
Have you met Alabama’s Montgomery Biscuits?
Want free things without doing much work? Well you're in luck!
Riverwalk Stadium will be Millennial friendly on Saturday, July 21st with a participation ribbon giveaway just for showing up, napping and selfie stations, along with lots of avocados 🥑
🎫: https://t.co/mEfHPEQ6fF pic.twitter.com/jvGKCCenpn
— Montgomery Biscuits (@BiscuitBaseball) July 11, 2018
Participation ribbons, naps, and selfie stations? Oh, fer cute!
It isn’t going over that well.
Because nothing says “baseball” like generational warfare.
My son the millennial might be offended if he had time to read this between working his two jobs to avoid taking on outrageous student loans. But his generation isn’t interested in your boring sport anyway so NBD.
— Toni Cleland (@toni_cleland) July 12, 2018
It’s bad marketing, as Yahoo Sports Liz Roscher notes. You don’t get people to come to your business by alienating them.
The theme night may be meant as a joke, but it’s tough to swallow regardless. Millennials (the oldest of whom are nearing 40) still live in a world that’s largely controlled by baby boomers. It’s the worst kind of punching down. Millennials get unfairly blamed for a lot of things, like the death of napkins (paper towels work fine, by the way), and are constantly maligned for getting married late and having fewer kids (or not having kids at all).
All of that is a result of a tough economic landscape, and it’s even more difficult to deal with because the people in power constantly tell millennials that they’re not trying hard enough, that it was better in their day, and their troubles are exclusively their own fault and no one else’s. It’s just needlessly mean, and trivializes the very real issues that millennials are dealing with, issues that have been largely overlooked by those in power.
A better idea to attract millennials? How about a “No Baby Boomers Allowed” Night? Or a “Baby Boomers Get In Free and Millennials Will Pay For their Handout” Night? That announcement would at least quiet down the old-timers who are wondering what the Millennials “whining” is all about? It’s about you and the future you selfishly ruined, sir.
“Eighty percent of our office are millennials, me included,” Mike Murphy, VP of corporate and fan engagement for the Biscuits, tells AdWeek. “We’re just trying to have fun with it, have a good time with the cliches with the way people feel about millennials.”
“We thought this would be fun,” he says. “Something got lost in the sarcasm, possibly.”
No apology is planned, he says.
(h/t: Paul Tosto)
