Army thinking of buying naming rights to RFK Stadium

[mattclearing]

I put it in the Lounge, but thought GD should be notified.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=2947640&mesg_id=2947640

[glaeken777]

1. disgusting

Doing so would be a slap in the face to a man who did his utmost to prevent unjust and unnecessary wars. As a great admirer of RFK, I hope someone puts a stop to this perversion of RFK's legacy.

[mattclearing]

5. Don't forget these people named our airport for Reagan. n/t

[Wickerman]

2. What did Ike say?

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

[OrlandoGator]

3. I wonder what the Armed Forces' advertising/endorsement budget is.

Our tax dollars at work. I'm so glad our defense spending includes football stadiums and race cars.

[mattclearing]

6. From the article:

Over the past several years, the Army has increased its advertising budget to $212 million a year, according to published reports, and entered the sports sponsorship game with NASCAR auto racing, high school football and even professional rodeo. The Army's longtime slogan, "Be All You Can Be," was abandoned in favor of more contemporary advertising campaigns.

[jmowreader]

12. Be All You Can Be

The first leadership school soldiers go to is the Primary Leadership Development Course. It's more commonly called PLDC. At PLDC you get to live like a basic trainee for a month while you learn how to be a squad leader--someone who leads about ten people.

My instructor was a recruiter when "Be All You Can Be" came out in 1980. Every year there is a big recruiting conference, and at that year's conference they announced the New Army Recruiting Campaign. Now understand, everyone knew they needed a new slogan. The old one was "Today's Army Wants To Join You." The problem, of course, was that the army doesn't join you, you join it and not enough people were.

So they brought all these used-car salesmen into a big movie theatre and played movies of the catchy new Army recruiting ads. At the end they asked for opinions. Hands down, everyone thought the visuals were great but the jingle sucked. Unfortunately, they kept the jingle.

[gratuitous]

10. Well, it's not like they need money for anything else

You know, like the drug companies who spend untold zillions on ad buys during the evening news and prime time for a bunch of products you can't buy. What else are they going to do with all the money they have?

[dmkinsey]

4. A fitting culmination of the current

administration's macabre culture of militarism and murder.

Maybe they could re-name the team while they're at it.
Would the Washington Stormtroopers offend Native Americans more than or less than the Redskins?

[mattclearing]

9. How about the Washington Jackboots? n/t

[AG78]

7. Perfect

They can name the stadium "Iraq".

[iconoclastNYC]

8. Someone should out bid them.

How about "Imagine: Peace" stadium, or "Visualize Peace" stadium?

[mattclearing]

11. Where's Yoko when you need her?

A fantastic idea. Then she could sing the national anthem on opening day.

:)

[jmowreader]

13. I got a better idea: she could NOT

Yoko Ono is a nice lady. She has good ideas.

But she can't carry a tune in a bucket with a lid on it. She sings worse than Roseanne, and you remember how THAT went over.

[onenote]

14. minor clarification: its the field, not the stadium

I don't think that there is any thought being given to taking RFK's name off of the stadium.What is up for sale is the naming rights for the field. So it would be "Army Field" at RFK Stadium. (Sort of like "Coach K Court" at "Cameron Indoor Stadium").

onenote

[SaveElmer]

15. I have no objection to that - nt

[mattclearing]

16. It will cease to be called RFK stadium in the media if this happens.

No one calls FedEx Field "FedEx Field at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium."

[onenote]

17. its not jack kent cooke stadium anymore

In that case they sold the naming rights to the stadium not just the field. And while you may be right about what the media will do,does anyone refer to Coach K Court rather than Cameron Indoor Stadium?

onenote