By Jeff Bennett and Jocelyn Parker, Knight Ridder Newspapers
12/20/2003
DETROIT — Dodge dealers, hit with highly publicized criticism from female customers, forced DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group to strip its sponsorship of the Lingerie Bowl.
"I think it had become a distraction to what we want to do next year," said James Kenyon, a Chrysler Group spokesman. "We didn’t want to spend the next six to eight weeks dealing with this in the media."
Kenyon said the decision came Wednesday after several complaints from Dodge dealers, female buyers and women who work for Chrysler.
The bowl, which will go on without the Dodge backing, is slated to be broadcast as a separate, pay-per-view attraction during the halftime of the Feb. 1 Super Bowl. It was originally billed as a tackle football game between two teams of seven models wearing bras and panties.
The two teams, Team Dream and Team Euphoria, would square off at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and feature models that included former Playboy playmates.
Dodge planned to use the bowl to plug the Durango.
But at a dealer meeting Wednesday, which included about 200 dealers from Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, Chrysler executives were told potential female Dodge buyers were angry.
"One dealer said he had a female buyer in his store and the woman told him that she would never buy Dodge if the company sponsored" such a thing, said a Michigan dealer who was at the meeting but asked not to be identified.
The dealer also said a Dodge vice president of sales and marketing told the group the decision to sponsor the bowl was to attract more buyers between the ages of 18 and 34. Dodge expected the viewership to be high with an expected 40 million watchers. Dealers were then asked, by a show of hands, if they supported the bowl. The majority did not.
Fred Vann, owner of Albion Motors in Albion who attended the meeting, said it was good that Chrysler got out.
"Most of the dealers I talked to thought it was a stretch," Vann said about the bowl sponsorship. "I think they wanted the conversations in the showrooms to be about vehicles, not lingerie."
Ties to the Lingerie Bowl began to unravel last week as female criticism grew.
Chrysler Group CEO Dieter Zetsche said he was not aware of the agreement to sponsor the game. That sent Dodge executives and the bowl’s designers scrambling.
After a brief huddle on Dec. 9, Chrysler emerged with a new bowl strategy that included form-fitting boy shorts and sports bras for the models, along with helmets, shoulder pads and mouthpieces.
But the change came too late.
Before Wednesday’s meeting, the National Dodge Dealer Advertising Association met with Chrysler executives on Monday. The association said its members did not think the bowl sponsorship was appropriate for the brand.
Mitch Mortaza, president of Horizon Productions, which is handling the show, said he is disappointed about the company’s decision, especially since he was led to believe Chrysler was behind the project 110 percent.
"Not only did Dodge evaluate the event for months before committing, but the details and marketing plan for the Lingerie Bowl have not changed since its inception," Mortaza said.
The decision, "is going to take our focus on having a great event to refocusing the event, which will take weeks. We don’t have weeks," Mortaza said.
Mortaza added that Horizon will now have to redo the uniforms, marketing materials and parts of the set related to the show because Dodge insisted that its logo be incorporated into all the materials and features related to the bowl.
It’s also unclear who might emerge as a replacement for the sponsorship, Mortaza said, because other potential backers — which included a footwear company and a movie studio — have lost interest in the event.
"Those sponsors have since walked away from the table because of the (negative) publicity," Mortaza said.
Randy Sharp, director of special projects for the American Family Association, said it wasn’t worth it for Chrysler to take the risk.
"Dodge placed themselves in a position of offending too many soccer moms who promised to abandon their brand loyalty to the company," Sharp said.
