A California baseball crew ditched altering its nickname to the Gold Diggers after the advertising gimmick prompting outrage over the sexist trope.
The Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, had deliberate to put on alternate uniforms with the brand new identify for 5 video games this season — starting on Saturday towards the Salt Lake Bees.
“Inspired by the regional history of the California Gold Rush, this new identity offers a connection to the significant impact of this era when Sacramento grew as the closest major city to the gold fields,” the River Cats informed the Sacramento Bee.
However a promotional video for the identify change that aired final month sparked outrage after it featured two ladies with greenback indicators flashing of their eyes upon seeing a participant.
Within the now-deleted YouTube video posted by the River Cats, a baseball participant emerges from a gold mine carrying a pickaxe.
As he walks by way of Sacramento, two ladies — every accompanied by a male associate — discover him and switch their consideration away from their companions.
Animated greenback indicators seem within the ladies’s eyes because the participant crosses the Tower Bridge to West Sacramento, the place he trades his pickaxe and a sack of golden baseballs for a bat.
“I shouldn’t have to explain why this video is bad, but hey, maybe you hit your head recently: ‘Gold Digger’ is not a nice name,” wrote Sacramento Bee columnist Robin Epley, calling out the nickname as “misogynist.”
“It’s not a name typically used in any fashion other than to insult women. And by the way, it’s often used to describe a situation that, for many women, is the only sense of financial security they’ll ever be able to obtain, by using the one privilege that society has always encouraged them to use (i.e. their bodies).”
Epley added that the video “showed us exactly what the leadership at the River Cats thinks of women.”
“There is no hiding behind ‘it’s just a joke’ after this.”
Lisa Kaplan, a Sacramento metropolis council member, additionally criticized the advert marketing campaign.
She wrote on X: “Missed the mark big time on this River Cats. It is a sexist and demeaning video. I expect better from your organization.”
The crew apologized for its lack of sensitivity.
“Our recent marketing campaign for an alternative identity clearly missed the mark,” the River Cats mentioned in an announcement to SFGate.
“Our intention was to creatively reference the rich history of Sacramento and gold country, but our approach was wrong, and we are sorry for the mistake. We will no longer be using this identity.”
