Minor league baseball team majorly screws up 'Millennial Night' promo

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/12/minor-league-baseball-team-to.html

6 Likes

Yeah, pretty much


20 Likes

They obviously aren’t even trying to appeal to Milennials, but to people who think making fun of Milennials is funny (i.e. older generations). “Generation” humor is pretty lazy stuff and it’s the same set of jokes over and over, but every generation until the Milennials has laughed it off instead of getting so butthurt. Seriously, avocado jokes are that offensive?

11 Likes

Tickets are still available.

Roger That!

14 Likes

I am genuinely boggled by whoever thought that “insult the people you want to give you money” was a good marketing strategy.

Maybe they figured millennials throw shade at each other and have a massive sense of self-deprecating humor, so it’d come off as “hip”, but the important part of the word “self-deprecating” is the self part.

So, you know the whole avocado thing is such a tentpole meme because rich fucks in the housing and banking industry decided to condescend to young people that if they just stopped eating so much darn avocado toast, we could somehow afford the down payment on a house, right? Like, avocado jokes aren’t the rallying cry. The avocado has just become really effective shorthand for “I don’t care about you or your situation and I will use economic reasoning that hasn’t been valid since the 1908s to explain why you, a youth, are a lazy feckless idiot who makes poor financial decisions.” So yes, it is just a little tone-deaf.

And hey, maybe generational humor was never actually that funny and grown-ups need to stop with the punching down on people who have to live in the shit-hole of consequences that they’ve built for us.

63 Likes

the kicker is that half the players on the team are probably millennials, and the other half are even younger and are used to getting the same shit dumped on them

Edit: no, I was wrong - the entire team are millennials: http://www.milb.com/roster/index.jsp?sid=t421

I thought the cut off for millennials was like 1995, but no, it’s 2000.

16 Likes

The millennials are lazy trope is offensive. And also, who gave all the fucking participation ribbons to millennials? It was their parents. Also, who cares?

43 Likes

It would be funnier if Millennials weren’t being blamed for things outside of their control. But no, it’s apparently Millennials’ fault that:

  • Worker pay hasn’t kept pace with productivity since the 1970s
  • The real price of higher education has vastly outpaced inflation
  • The real price of housing has vastly outpaced inflation

The jokes obscure a problem. It’s not that avocado toast is offensive. It’s that avocado toast isn’t contributing to a generation that will probably be less well-off than their parents; rather, structural changes in the economy, created by those same parents, are negatively impacting the kids, all while the parents chastise the kids for not being able to overcome the obstacles the parents put in place, then wondering why the kids can’t buy a house in an environment where a house is several times more expensive than it was when the parents bought one.

41 Likes

Avocados were associated with Milennials for YEARS before that guy made the comment. The reason he was able to talk about Milennials and avocados was because it had been so long “established” beforehand.

So no, avocados are not insulting and one dickhead’s comment can’t create a plausible circumstance for valid outrage.

Plus, ALL generations are portrayed as bad with money, since most young people are bad with money as a cohort. It has always been applied and always will be.

1 Like

Will maaaybe attend Easily Offended People Night next week, if my engraved invitation ever shows up.

6 Likes

I’m a Boomer, and I thought the Boomer Night suggestions were funny. Now get off my lawn.

17 Likes

Right, there are as many “you Boomers broke the world !!” rants from Milennials as there are “you lazy avocado toast eaters!” from Boomers.

We Gen Xers just watch, disaffected and slacking as usual.

43 Likes

I disagree. That’s how social media works. “One dickhead” can start a war with a tweet. This particular dickhead thought that mocking millennials as lazy, self-entitled, selfish rich kids whose idea of fun is napping and selfies would get them to pay to watch a baseball game. Their horrible marketing is being rightfully mocked.

16 Likes

I’m not so sure about that.

4 Likes

Ok, let me rephrase: One dickhead should not be able to create valid outrage about avocados.

1 Like

I’m ok with baseball fading away. It’s boring af

10 Likes

I didn’t actually know there was such a thing as minor league.

1 Like

You seem weirdly hung up about the avocado thing. That was a very minor side-note on their marketing (“lots of avocados!”). That’s not the jerkwad part of their marketing. What makes the outrage valid is the comments about “wanting free things without doing much work” and assuming that what millennials want for a good time are “participation ribbons for just showing up” and “napping & selfie stations”.

12 Likes

They have the best team names though!

2 Likes

On the bright side, it’s nice that they finally realized that baseball is so boring to watch that napping stations would be useful… :slight_smile:

13 Likes