Help Needed to Sell Pacers to Fans

The Pacers are in dire need of relating some good news and good will to their public, but there hasn't been much to offer lately. So what do you do when you want to excite fans but don't have anything to say? Basketbawful has the goods on the Pacers recent hiring of additional public relations firms to help imrpove their image. In lieu of any substantive changes to pique Pacer fans' interest, we'll be sold the minor offseason tweaks in a new system as a reason to get excited for the upcoming season. How they'll sell it is the question.

I would love to see some new and creative television ads for the Pacers. I was actually thinking about this a couple of weeks ago while out in Seattle. The best ad the Pacers have had in the past few years was the Bird/J.O. O'Brien tropy ad, but that was an NBA ad, not a local Pacer ad. I'm out in Seattle a couple of times a year and the Mariners and Sonics, especially the Mariners, always have great ads running. The M's use players and coaches and just put them in funny situations that brings out the human side of the individuals. They're always funny, often use self-deprecating humor and give the fans a chance to see a different side of the player than what they see on the field or court. Kind of the way the early "Cut that meat!" commercial exposed Petyon Manning's personality. Sure makes it easier to root for guys that appear likable.

Even likable guys need to win at some point, though. Maybe the Pacers are gearing up for a flurry of activity that will require all the extra PR help. Maybe not. More likely, they'll keep throwing "fresh start, get past the post-brawlcalypse wasteland" imagery at us, hoping something sticks. If I may, I'd enjoy some clever ads but more importantly I'd suggest some wins. W's always project a sunny outlook that every fan can get excited about in a hurry.