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Seafood ads on trolleys spark de-bait after transit union carps about them
The wisecracking cartoon fish that recently appeared on the sides of Green Line trolleys have some lines that sound like they were ripped from a Henny Youngman routine: "Hey lady, I've seen smaller noses on a swordfish," and, "This trolley gets around more than your sister." Then there's this side-splitter sure to leave 'em laughing: "This conductor has a face like a halibut." Ba-boom.A lot of riders on the Green Line seem to think they're a hoot. So does Roger Berkowitz, the But the MBTA is not laughing. Neither are the hundreds of employees who work on the Green line. This week, after the trolley conductors union Gave 'em the hook, as it were. The T "felt this ad was inappropriate and disrespectful to employees," spokesman Joe Pesaturo said. . . . "To say they are "Even if you pay 'em union scale."  MacDougall said he likes Legal Sea Foods, and cannot understand why the company and the T could not have anticipated a backlash to the ads."Holy mackerel!" "Who the hell wants to say they have a face like a fish?" he said. "I happen to like to eat fish, and I like seafood, and I like going fishing, but I don't want anybody saying that I or any of my members look like a fish." "You better believe it, chum!" Berkowitz said all he wanted to do was draw attention to his "really fresh fish." "They're cute ads," Berkowitz said. "It's hard to conceive of anyone being insulted by them, truly insulted by them, because it's coming out of the mouth of a fish and it's really tongue-in-cheek. For anyone to take it personally, I'd have to sit there scratching my head." . . . Berkowitz said he was surprised by the decision because Legal Sea Foods did not hear any complaints after it sponsored a virtually identical ad campaign earlier this year on the tops of Boston taxicabs. Those ads showed a fish declaring, "this driver has a face like a halibut." Posted by: Mike 2008-06-09 |
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