Comcast Gets Asked To Quit Being Athols

A Massachusetts town, offended by a Comcast SportsNet advertisement, aksed the network to quit running the ad, and Comcast has agreed to do so.

A cable sports network says it no longer will make Athol the butt of its jokes.

Comcast SportsNet said Thursday it would pull a newspaper ad that leaders of the small central Massachusetts town called insulting and offensive.

The ad featured two side-by-side signs that together read: "We can pronounce Worcester ... without sounding like an Athol."

A network spokesman said it apologized Thursday to the town and Selectman Wayne Miller, who raised the issue this week after residents complained that the ad ridiculed Athol by linking its name to a similarly sounding vulgarity.

Town selectmen voted Tuesday to have the town attorney write a letter of protest to the company, and Miller also urged residents to boycott papers if they ran the ads.

It seems like a decently funny ad campaign, though I can understand why the town might be a bit upset. Actually I think Mr. Miller addressed the issue the best.

"There's always been this, shall we say, 'humorous' pronunciation," Miller said Thursday. "If one person is doing it, that's nothing to worry about. But you have to draw the line when a major company uses it to make money."

It seems that everyone is aware of the play on words, and that most of them enjoy the humor. However, they don't appreciate a huge media conglomerate making jokes at their expense. It's sort of the whole "we can make fun of ourselves over it, but you can't" situation. At least Comcast has done the right thing by pulling the ads.