• Reuters, Thursday, April 5, 2007 11:15 AM

Canadian regulators are insisting on changes to a new ad campaign that features baseball star Frank "The Big Hurt" Thomas. They are upset by the spot, which features the Blue Jays slugger in a pillow fight where he knocks one kid out of the park. The ad is one of several the Blue Jays have rolled out to promote their 2007 season, which started this week.

Thomas walks in on two boys jumping on a bed and having a pillow fight when one gives him a swat. Thomas then grabs the pillow and nails the boy with it, sending him aloft in a sea of feathers. He then does a home-run jog out of the room, and the boy gets up with a smile. But regulators "said the child landing on the floor may have left the impression that he was hurt," says Laurel Lindsay, the Blue Jays' vice-president of marketing.

And Thomas has no problems with changes: "I just don't want people to think I'm a violent-type guy because I'm not. I'm a fun-loving guy. I said we better keep it lighthearted." The Television Bureau of Canada, an industry group that approves ads, refused to OK the spot until images of the boy being knocked to the floor were nixed.

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