Since sponsors spend a big wad of money to put on bowl games, naturally, they like to promote it. Champs Sports, which is a sports apparel store that sponsors a bowl, has a window display with a caption saying "We love football so much, we have our own game, and everyone's invited." The display has a space for four shirts, so around here (NW Indiana), you would expect Purdue shirts in the display because Purdue's playing in the game. Of course, you would be wrong. At the store in the mall in Hobart, IN, the display has four Indiana shirts.
When I went to the counter to buy, ironically, a Champs Sports Bowl shirt as a gift (if the person I bought that for is reading this, please act surprised when you get it), I couldn't resist asking the clerk about the display.
Me: "Can I ask a stupid question?"
Her (clearly exasperated): "I put Indiana shirts in the display because the manager told me to."
Me: "I take it I'm not the first to almost ask about it."
Her: "No. The manager says that the Purdue stuff is selling better, so he wants it where people can get to it. We have extra Indiana stuff, so he said to use that."
Me: "Don't you think that's kind of a silly way to promote the company's bowl game?"
Her: "I just do what the manager tells me to do."
The manager was unavailable for comment.
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I live in Orlando -- and the Champs Sports store I went to Saturday didn't have any Champs Sports Bowl T-shirts at all.
I live in South Florida and being a Purdue Alum, I was walking by our Champs store. I saw the banner in the window so I stopped in to see if they had any T-shirts. I asked the clerk if they had Bowl T-shirts. He looked at me like I just told him I flew in from Mars. He then asked "Bowl???" and finally pointed to a rack of Floria T-shirts. I thought I was dealing with a bad store until I read these post. I guess they training is "put a poster in the window and pretend it doesn't exist."
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