I am a fan of Jack Daniel's work, especially when he acts like a Gentleman.
I also have been a fan of Tennessee football.
The Tennessee football program recently released the design on the Vols' season tickets, and they appear to have a classic Jack Daniel's look.That said, at best it seems like a curious decision to merge the two. The Tennessee football program recently released the design on the Vols' season tickets, and the look and decision is very much the sipping image of the classic Jack Daniel's bottle.
Yes, there are far too many folks far too worried about the political correctness of some random statement or that random symbol. The Internet morality mob bombards social media with outrage about almost everything.
This is less about that and more about the reasoning. It's asking why? Why, other than a shared Tennessee link, would any college football program want to connect with liquor?
"The University of Tennessee did not contact us regarding their ticket design," Svend Jansen, global public relations director for Jack Daniel's, wrote to the Times Free Press in an email Wednesday. "While some people might see similarities between the 2015 UT football tickets and our Jack Daniel's label, at this point in time, we don't believe the resemblance is close enough to confuse UT fans or friends of Jack."
So UT designed these tickets a lot like the familiar design on its own and that's certainly UT's prerogative. But we do question this decision.
UT officials did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment, so we are left to wonder.
In a climate in which binge drinking on college campuses in general is a real issue - and on the Tennessee campus in particular, since it is the home of "butt chugging," the term connected to the 2012 news conference about a UT fraternity that got in trouble for funneling alcohol, well, you get the picture - this seems unnecessary. And it seems oddly out of character.
From point A to now, UT football coach Butch Jones and his staff have aced every marketing challenge before them. From the catchy, if not cheesy, slogans to the specific messages to the new uniforms and everything in between, the Vols have amassed a ton of off-the-field momentum with one great move after another.
So the 2015 ticket design feels out of sync, even if there has been some initial social media hubbub.
USA Today blogger Nick Schwartz wrote: "The Tennessee Volunteers might just have the coolest football tickets in the nation. Season ticket-holders received their 2015 home game tickets in the mail, and the design mirrors a label of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey."
Are we offended by it? No, not in the least. There are many other things - real things that deserve real attention - around us every day that call for outrage more than the design of a ticket stub.
But we are puzzled by this choice, since it's completely out of character for the program under Jones, who likely had little to do with it. But knowing his hands-on approach, Jones almost certainly was aware of the decision.
Jones even told Ryan Callahan of 247sports.com when asked about the whiskey connection that a TaxSlayer Bowl official told Jones that UT fans helped the stadium sell out of whiskey for the first time.
Does this push the edge of "there's no such thing as bad publicity" mantra? Sure, serious and even heinous allegations are obviously against that golden rule of public relations. Ask Bill Cosby, O.J., and even Tom Brady. Those folks certainly did not enjoy the negative spotlight they found themselves in.
But we are discussing the look of UT season tickets, which never has been a controversial topic. So in that regard, this move, like so many others in the Butch Jones era, has generated buzz.
Will that buzz lead to a hangover, however?
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter at jgree son@timesfreepress.com.