Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Those of you who know me on a more personal level or follow me on Twitter @coconnell1 you might have noticed that I'm kind of in love with the St. Louis Cardinals -- alright, I'm pretty much obsessed. I grew up in baseball family and adored spending time with my Dad and older brother watching games. My love for the Birdinals has grown even more in the four years that I've lived in Chicago. I find that I am often surrounded by the enemy (aka Cubs fans) and need to know my stuff in order to properly talk smack to the bad guys.

I think every one's dream for their career is to have the opportunity to combine the things that you are good at with the things that you love. My dream project as a Communications major is to be assigned to the MLB account. Unfortunately, the Cardinals don't need much in terms of advertising. They have Pujols. That face and those stats are all that it takes to get fans to a game at Busch Stadium. St. Louis truly is a baseball town. Tickets will always sell, therefore the advertising efforts for the St. Louis Cardinals are fairly minimal.

I've realized the exact opposite is true for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox. This cross-town rivalry does not just exist on the field, but also in advertising.

The Chicago White Sox have developed an advertising campaign based around traditions for the 2009 season. For those of you who are not familiar with Chicago baseball, White Sox fans are generally blue-collar workers and South-siders for life. The 'White Sox Traditions' campaign successfully reaches their target audience. These advertisements emphasize the simple things that White Sox fans do to prove just how die-hard they really are.

As much as I hate to say anything good about the Chicago Cubs, I also feel as though they really nailed their 2009 advertising campaign. I came across a great Cubs advertisement back in early February when I was enjoying the lovely negative ten-degree wind chill that Chicago masters so well.

Baseball has always been that light at the end of the tunnel for me. With baseball season comes warm weather, barbecues, trips to the beach and street festivals. I saw the advertisement above and my mood was immediately elevated. I never knew that the Cubs were capable of cheering me up -- other than when they lose, of course. So, for one time only, I'm going to say kudos to the Cubs' advertising team for capturing just how truly miserable Chicago Winters are.