Roger Berkowitz is a slimy eel

Mike explains why he can understand the anger of T drivers over Legal Seafood's Henny Youngmanish ad campaign, more specifically, over Berkowitz's bring-it-on radio response to their complaints about the Green Line ads.

I don't think that the original ad was that huge of a deal, and a simple apology and retraction of the ad would have been fine. But Berkowitz responded with this back-handed, joking remark in a new radio advertisement. What an ass. ... If it was one of these ads on the side of the trolley in which a Green Line operator was killed last month, I don't think he'd be as sarcastic.

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good for roger. they were

good for roger. they were silly ads. people are so damn sensitive these days that they can't find humor in a bunch of crass comments coming from the mouth of a fish. I thought it was funny and I laughed my ass off at his response. lighten up folks.

anon (not verified) | Thu, 06/12/2008 - 7:41pm

silly maybe... but... i had

silly maybe... but...

i had to explain to my son what "this trolley gets around almost as much as your sister" meant. yeah. that's fun. and now he's saying it every 12 minutes to someone. great.

i thought the fish heads were kind of disgusting to look at. i don't like my fish on my plate with heads and don't like when dead food talks to me. i found that more gross than the concepts.

amusings | Thu, 06/12/2008 - 7:58pm

Just for the record....

I'm in the "people really have to lighten up" camp. Please.

merlinmurph | Thu, 06/12/2008 - 8:36pm

the greater good.

say what you will about the campaign, spatch needed it for his art.

pom (not verified) | Thu, 06/12/2008 - 9:23pm

Stick a Condom On It

I find it tempting to tag the "your sister" ones with condoms.

Why? Because that reflects just about the amount of concern I should have about a sibling's sexual escapades. Or, as my late mother once told me, "If you can't be good, BE SANITARY".

SwirlyGrrl | Thu, 06/12/2008 - 9:35pm
adamg | Thu, 06/12/2008 - 10:35pm

Last time that I did a T ad

Last time that I did a T ad campaign was back in the late 90's, however, at that time the T was pretty strict about what went on the trains. There was an enormous lead time needed so that your ad could be approved by the T and then printed by their official printer.

I don't know how I feel about the ads really, but I'm just saying it isn't like Legal Seafoods snuck them on the side of the trains.

anon-o-mus (not verified) | Thu, 06/12/2008 - 10:49pm

Get over yourselves, T conductors

We riders put up with your snarky attitudes, your lack of consideration when opening/closing doors and just a general, well, crappiness. (Well, except for that one train conductor who used to be on the Blue Line at evening rush hour who would sing songs, recite funny limericks about the city and generally make us giggle on the way home...I have a feeling his superiors heard about how fun he was and put him on a desk job.)

Maybe it's because it's Roger Berkowitz that it's got your knickers in a bunch but I don't care. When you all begin running service to meet the needs of the commuters rather than to just push trains through the tunnels, maybe I'll be more sympathetic. Frankly, I think it's pretty funny.

Route 66 | Thu, 06/12/2008 - 11:03pm

I miss the bus driver on the

I miss the bus driver on the 501 who used to wish the whole bus a "wonderful and sucessful day" he ran a red light one morning and got a ticket. never saw him again. too bad.

most of the drivers are jerks...

anon (not verified) | Thu, 06/12/2008 - 11:26pm

Should have called their bluff

They weren't going to drive "those trains"? Just those trains? That's insubordination and they'd be fired. Either they'd have to general strike (something I doubt they're all prepared to do over stupid ads given the economic climate) or they'd have to work under complaint (big whoop).

They should have called their bluff on this crap. Most of us are more concerned about the piss-poor driving record of the Green Line conductors lately rather than their sex lives or their conceited looks.

The MBTA as a whole is really beginning to foment a very general distaste and anger on the Green Line and something had better change soon.

Kaz | Thu, 06/12/2008 - 11:43pm

Legal Ads

I am sure some bigwig at the T OK'd the ads.
Vent at them.

Lighten the bleep up.

Ned Devine (not verified) | Fri, 06/13/2008 - 12:55am

A big reach...

"If it was one of these ads on the side of the trolley in which a Green Line operator was killed last month, I don't think he'd be as sarcastic."

What a pathetic argument, trying to tie the ads to an unrelated accident underscores how little you have to work with in building your case.

Berkowitz is a good local business man who serves a better than average product, he's lousy to his workers but thats another story.

cscott (not verified) | Fri, 06/13/2008 - 9:00am

But sperm and dollar signs are OK?

So wise-cracking fish are wicked offensive,
but dollar signs fashioned from neon-colored
sperm are ok?

alleyesonjenny.com...sperm-really-enhance-my-portfolio/

Yeah, that makes sense.

bobmetcalf | Fri, 06/13/2008 - 9:39am

But what if the sperm had little thought balloons?

"This egg is fatter than the conductor!"

adamg | Fri, 06/13/2008 - 9:49am

Last one in is a rotten ...

... oh, nevermind.

SwirlyGrrl | Fri, 06/13/2008 - 9:56am

Egg-zackly!

Egg-zackly!

bobmetcalf | Fri, 06/13/2008 - 10:05am

this one's on Consumerist too

as a followup to the original story. they have a partial transcript of the "apology," too. Now that I've read it I have to say that I like his approach, underscoring the silliness of the campaign, good old reductio ad absurdum. I mean, it's not like the fish were doing something really outrageous, something that would call for an immediate end to the campaign, like swimming around draped in paisley scarves.

pom (not verified) | Fri, 06/13/2008 - 10:13am

good for roger, indeed

When I heard about the original ad campaign, I thought it was pretty funny, but that the "conductor" joke was probably the weakest (it didn't have a double meaning).

Now that the union has given him free publicity, he's gone and milked it for all it's worth - with a spot that's actually funnier than the one it "replaced".

It's almost enough to make me wish I weren't a vegetarian, JUST so I could go support him with my dollars. Good on ya for standing up to the conductor's union.

Now we need to find someone who wants to wrap a trolley with 'This conductor looks nothing like a halibut' ads. Who could complain?

Jay Levitt | Fri, 06/13/2008 - 7:04pm

Well...

There is an unusual concern about the PC ness of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewfish
Just saying. Hell, I thought the ads were funny. Too much sensitivity out there.

anony moose cow ard (not verified) | Sat, 06/14/2008 - 3:34am

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