• Brandweek, Monday, October 2, 2006 11:15 AM

Major League Baseball breaks a campaign today starring Los Angeles Dodger fixture Tommy Lasorda traveling to different cities wearing a tuxedo and using "tough love" to help despondent fans whose favorite teams are not in the playoffs. In Chicago, for example, he finds a Cubs fan who has climbed a tree and won't come down. Lasorda tells him even though the Cubs won't win the World Series, "It's October. You're a baseball fan. Watch the games!" The campaign also will direct people to MLB.com, which is adding "Tommy pages" that will include a blog with Lasorda and condolence cards that can be sent to fans whose teams have been eliminated. The campaign theme, "Real fans don't hide in October. They celebrate it!" was created by McCann Erickson in New York. It includes three TV spots, print, radio ads and MLB's most "extensive postseason online media buy," according to a league official. MLB will spend about $1.2 million of its $10 million budget on the online element. Lasorda, who has been with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization for almost 60 years, managed the U.S. Olympic Baseball team at the 2000 Summer Olympics and was recently appointed the official ambassador of the World Baseball Classic.

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