(I am a FanHouse author, but the views expressed in this post are only my own, not AOL’s)
On Monday, a deal between AOL and Fantasy Sports Girl was made public over at FanHouse. The basic gist? Tarted-up actresses are going to be reading cue-cards about fantasy football every week. There are so many terrible things about this that I scarcely know where to begin.
The videos themselves are absolutely fucking terrible. Ignoring the gender issues for a moment, the quality is just bad. The production is mediocre. The women themselves look very “tired”1. Also, if we’re going to be pandering, shouldn’t the women actually be hot? To say nothing of the fact that the advice they’re handing out is weak at best, and certainly not anything of significant value. On top of all of that, they’re not even good at reading off of cue cards and the “fuck me” vibe they’re trying so hard to give off is trashy, lame, and reminiscent of a late-night 900-number ad.
Put another way, even if the idea was good, the execution is decidedly not.
Problem is, it’s a bad idea, too. The videos are clearly and unambiguously pandering to the lowest element of society: men who can’t even be bothered to pay attention to things in which they’re interested unless sex is served as a side-dish. It’s a stark contrast to the above-board nature of FanHouse. It’s a respectable, credible sports blog… and this sort of thing damages the reputation of everyone who writes there.
It’s also worth pointing out that FanHouse already has attractive women on video, and while the ladies who do the FanHouse Minute aren’t all slutted up2, they know their shit, which (for most sports fans, I think) is far more important than cleavage when it comes to getting sports information. Bringing the Fantasy Sports Girls on board is really a slap in the face to the work that the women writers of FanHouse do on a daily basis.
The corporate response has been characteristically shitty as well. With the exception of a few meat-head douchebags, the vast, vast majority the FanHouse talent is unhappy with the addition. Since the videos launched on Monday, well over 150 emails have been sent by authors, with nearly 60 of them being on the official listserve (populated by a fair number of AOL folks responsible for the ‘House).
If you want to see a textbook example of bad management, observe this: a huge portion of the talent that makes FanHouse go is upset, they have criticized the videos from pretty much every conceivable angle, and they’ve done so calmly, respectfully, and intelligently.
The response sent by [a manager at AOL in charge of FanHouse] came after the close of business yesterday indicated that they were taking our thoughts “very seriously” and planned to take care of it during a meeting on the coming Monday.
…really? The management spent a whole day dicking around while their talent was protesting, a whole day while FanHouse was getting blasted by other blogs, and they’re going to “address [our] concerns” a week later? Give me a break. Besides… couldn’t that email have been sent Tuesday morning after the first dozen or two emails? It’s a failure of leadership, if that term can even properly be used.
It’s absurd, really. Whatever comes of this stupid deal, I hope folks understand that this isn’t some that the FanHouse writers are happy with or going along with quietly.
Other Posts:
- FanHouse? More like Whore House - Playing the Field
- Curious Index for 7/29 - Every Day Should Be Saturday
- Fantasy Sports Girl is a FanHouse Mess - Mister Irrelevant
- The Fanhouse We Knew And Loved, Is Officially Gone - Awful Announcing
- Hiring Fantasy Girls Sets Off FanHouse Firestorm - The Sporting Blog
I’m sure there will be more.
for lack of another polite term which more adequately expresses “rode hard, put up wet.”
This is a good thing, in my opinion
Tags: FanHouse
August 3rd, 2008 at 1:26 am
omg Pete! i don’t know if you remember me but i used to be a blogger named kd, who had a place called surreally. i’m now a person known as dotlizard, but anyway — nice to see you still blogging!