Late last night, Bleacher Report writer Ethan J. Skolnick tweeted this:
Awful Cavaliers promo video features guy throwing Bulls fan girlfriend
Strangest thing of night: when videoscreen showed skit of a guy in Cavs gear throwing girlfriend across room until she removed Bulls gear.
— Ethan J. Skolnick (@EthanJSkolnick) May 7, 2015 I figured that had to be an exaggeration, and the Cavaliers' team of trained, paid promotional video makers wouldn't actually use domestic violence as their gag, but ...
... nope, it’s even worse than described. It has since been deleted from the Internet, but not before a whole arena of people saw it.
It’s a one-note joke ripped from this dumb but harmless Dirty Dancing-themed commercial, except instead of a goofy accident, they made the action a guy overhand-spiking his girlfriend’s head on the floor, followed by her visible pain and a nauseating “don’t make the same mistake she made” voiceover. Somehow, multiple human adults read this pitch and decided to produce it, then multiple other human adults OK’d it for screening in front of 20,000 people.
The Cavs were trying to be silly, but they took all the silly parts from their inspiration and turned them really grim. It’s baffling that nobody figured this out along the way. Rethink your whole shit, Cavs.
Cleveland issued the following statement Thursday afternoon:
Cavaliers have issued an apology for last night's video: pic.twitter.com/avVN2p81GL
— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) May 7, 2015 See More:
