Far be it from me to ever infringe upon anyone's right to voice their opinions, even in regards to a topic as devisive as gay marriage, but seriously, this is one of the least professional uses of social media (even surpassing New Media Strategies Chrysler screw-up). I'm guessing that Brunette, McCormick, Neil, Fisher, Colaiacovo and the other Uptown clients as well as their respective teams, are going to receive their fair share of media inquiries about their representation making such a fueled statement. These players deserve better. Hockey fans deserve better. Sean Avery deserves better, and this does NOT help the NHL's community outreach or public persona.
Shame on you, Uptown Hockey.
Bryan's take... after the jump.
Bryan's take:
Twitter is a wonderful tool. It allows people in far flung areas of the world to access breaking news, most of the time before it is even on TV, radio, or on a blog. Recently, however, Twitter has become a place where sports agents turn to blast each other and push their social agenda. Nothing could be more disturbing.
Take for example, the tweets from Norton Sports Management (@NortonSports) aimed at Alan Walsh. The official account of the agency inferred that Walsh is a "vulture" at a time when Walsh was referring to his late father. This, from the same account that pushes the "Make My Day Monday" tweets that call on people to help in any way they can on Mondays and tell the story. Great stuff right? Right, until you use the same account to make a personal attack on your competition.
Today, as Nathan described above, Uptown sports (@UptownHockey) tweeted opposition to Sean Avery's support of same sex marriage. Not only did they tweet opposition to it, they made the declaration that same sex marriage "will always be wrong." This is a disgusting use of an official account for a business aimed at promoting the interests of their clients. This is absolutely not the place for the person running the account to push their social agenda, and is utterly disturbing to read.
I will defend to the death the rights of anyone to say and believe anything they want, no matter how wrong and disgusting those beliefs are. The use of an official account does not reflect the beliefs of the person writing the tweets. The use of an official account represents the beliefs of the business, and by extension, their clients. It reflects poorly on players such as Andrew Brunette, and that upsets me to no end.
The fact that the operator of the account believes that people should not be able to love whom they wish is gross enough. To then put that agenda forward on their official account, soiling the business and the players the represent is completely and totally unacceptable.
As the venerable Down Goes Brown noted: "Rule of thumb: When you're going up against Sean Avery and *he* has the moral high ground, you've really screwed up."
Shame on you indeed, Uptown Sports. Shame on you for your beliefs, and for using an official account to spew your filth. I hope every one of your clients walks away from your moronic and clearly inept PR firm.
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