Oooohh... Elitism! Oh noes!

Some people need to learn to take a joke.

Do any of these trolley conductors even know what a halibut face looks like? Because I'll admit I don't, and I've been eating halibut for years. It's great.

I think this is a perfect response to what should have been a non-issue to begin with...I would like an explanation as to how this is elitist.

Don

it MUST be war if you pull the elitist card

The MBTA carmen cant afford to eat at Legal (pricey tourist trap, especially Chestnut Hill), so no harm done....

Not to blame the 'victim,' here, but there are full groups of people that are objectified, misrepresented, and have negative stereotypes reinforced about their race/culture/gender/sexual orientation, etc. every single day, so this seems kind of... silly.

I'm glad he's tweaking the union - bunch of whiners. Does anyone have to remind them that advertising helps support their bloated salaries and pension?

You can't take a joke if you have a face like a flounder.

This whole story definitely deserves a face/palm.

Good for this guy for not being bullied by this politically correct bull shenanigans.

Holy crap

I've SEEN the one that looks like a Hammerhead Shark!!

Seriously though ... for once I don't think it's the CEO of the corporation that has elitism issues.

For gods sake appreciate some originality in the advertising shoved down our communal eyes once in a while.

Clearly they're upset because Legal Sea Food isn't "taking it seriously"

Sounds like somebody has an inferiority complex. Lighten up Francis.

That's funny. And warranted.

I need to go to eat there. Just because of this.

Eh, I don't think I'd like someone to slap a sign on my work desk that says, "This paper pusher looks like a babboon's ass."

I'd rip it down and punch the guy who tried to put it back up. So I guess I see their point.

Stephan, you are in more dire need of a blowjob than any white man in history.

I think the response they gave is perfect. Though its sad that there are people who can't take a joke and have to drag everything/everyone down. The original ad made me giggle. The response made me laugh out loud. They'd get my business, if I was a local.

Oh snap, son.

Unfunny and / or insulting animal names.

Ass / donkey / baboon / warthog / ape / weasel

Funny animal names

Halibut / dingo / titmouse / platypuss / flounder / wiener dog / garter snake

I recommend contact your congressman and having Senate hearings about the offensive use of picean species to create humilation and degration of others. This was clearly the intent of Legal Seafood, as opposed to other darker, nefarious reasons, such as advertising, publicity and light-hearted humor.

"Some people need to learn to take a joke."

And companies have to learn that you don't get sales by ridiculing and pissing off potential customers. That's the great thing about this country, you're free to compare a trolley conductor to a fish, and that trolley conductor is free to tell you and your business to go to hell.

After a while, those conductors are going to look like a horses backside. Is that better?

Halibut are flatfish. Their eyes start out on opposite sides of their body (like, say, salmon) but one migrates to the other side (ultimately the top) of the fish as it matures. So yeah, when you pull one out of the water they're pretty fugly.

Still, I'd be flattered. Especially if I was the conductor who resembled the hammerhead shark.

I would probably cry from laughing too hard if someone called me a hammerhead shark.

I thought the original ad was kinda lame, but this response made the whole thing incredible. Oh, and calling the CEO elitiest? Please.

@GMFish: So what is appropriate subject for humor? Basically it is probably possible to find something offensive about virtually any possible humorous story or joke.

From a children's joke site:

Why did the atoms cross the road?
A: It was time to split!

Insensitive because splitting atoms lead to nuclear weapons and the bombing of Hiroshima.

Q: What do you do when your chair breaks?
A: Call a Chairman.

Sexist.

Q: Why do Eskimos wash their clothes in tide?
A: Because it's too cold out tide!

Geographically insensitive. Eskimos live in places that are not always cold year-round.

Q: What is the biggest pencil in the world?
A: Pennsylvania.

Mocks a city.

Q: Why did the boy blush when he opened the fridge?
A: He saw the salad dressing!

Sexual innuendo

I am sick and tired of "elitism." It always comes off as childish name-calling, which isn't very adult at all. Obama is an elitist, so is Clinton and McCain, heck anybody that holds a pretty damn good job is an elitist. Why? Because THEY ARE SUPERIOR TO YOU. Just because that guy holds a degree in dentistry means that he can do a better job of fixing some other guy's teeth than YOU!

Phew... This really does boil down to a childish fight.
CEO: Youse guys look like fish.
UP: You're a stinky fish face.
CEO: No you are!
UP: You are!

If anything the whiny conductors Union just makes me want to eat at Legal Seafood even more. it seems sevral workers in that feild need a couch and quick...anyone willing to donate?

wah wah wah...

Oh, man, some people need to grow a thicker skin...
or scales.

I love how this has become an ad hominem argument over insults.

That said, can someone please explain to me why insulting my sister will make me want to eat dinner at Legal? I mean, I love Legal, I missed it something fierce when I moved out of Boston and every time I'm through Logan, I buy up a gallon of chowder just to piss off everyone else on my flight. But seriously-- did anyone see those ads and decide a delicious pecan-crusted halibut was exactly what they needed right that second?

@SkokieGuy wrote:
Q: What is the biggest pencil in the world?
A: Pennsylvania.

Sorry for being overly picky, but Pennsylvania is a state--much bigger insult. *LOL*

I ate at Legal many years ago and I thought it was nothing special and over priced. The CEO's cleverly getting more bang for his advertising dollar.

Some people need to grow thicker skin...
or scales.

Wow! I want to move to Boston. Apparently there's nothing better to do that bitch at each other and name call.

Well, I think the original ads were fairly unfunny and odd...but the thought of someone really getting their feeling hurt by one is so sill that they became funny, and the response to the offense taken was even better...

All it takes is a moments thought to guess that these signs were placed randomly on the cars, obviously not a personal attack...and the idea that the union leader got more than one complaint paints a picture of a pretty insecure group of conductors.

I call BS...I am curious just how many complaints they have really received.

D-

@GMFish: Yeah. See the issue here is that Legal Seafood wasn't free to say a conductor's face looked like a halibut. The carmen's union started threatening to go on strike over the ads and they got pulled. If they threatened a boycott, your point would be valid. They didn't. They threatened to shut down public transportation in a major urban center and as such got their way.

They are paid employees of the transit system. They can suck it up and deal with an ad campaign like this. I don't see ads getting pulled that insult CUSTOMERS of the train system. No, when CONSUMERS are insulted, its okay with the employees and employers alike. Attacking CUSTOMERS isn't a problem with any of them. Seems like insulting CONSUMERS might be a bigger issue at this site, rather than crying over employees who don't want to be subjected to the withering insults of a photograph of a dead fish.

As a copywriter with several decades of experience, I have to agree that Berkowitz pulled a real boner here. Why insult a whole profession of hard-working transit workers? Is Legal Seafood that desperate for publicity and/or business? I have liked the Legal Seafood campaign on the radio -- until the Berkowitz spot came on in which he lies about his fishing prowess. Someone at the client or agency has a tin ear for maintaining brand equity. I'd suggest Berkowitz might be the guy -- and I'd also guess it will be a cold day in Hell before he'll ever ride public transit any way...

A one-off joke was fine, but now they really do come off as pricks. Also, they need to hire a new ad agency.

@BStu: Actually he IS free to say that. Are you aware of any anti-halibut law that protects transit workers?

And I'm unable to make sense of your argument about differences between CUSTOMERS CONSUMERS and EMPLOYEES.

Transit workers are certainly employees, but they are also consumers, just like everyone else and customers or potential customers, just like everyone else who saw the ad.

Basically, as long as Legal Seafood wasn't insulting a protected class with racial, sexual or similar comments, he can do as he wishes. Those offended are free not to eat at Legal Seafood, but that should be the logical end of all this.

Everyone says this was an insult. It was an humor.

We all have seen the creditreport.com ads. The guy's dressed as a pirate and working in a seafood joint because he didn't check his credit......

Basically that commercial makes clear that being a waiter in a theme type chain diner is a horrible sucky job that any smart person (who checked their credit report) would somehow avoid.

Why aren't all the waiters at Legal Seafood and all waiters everywhere protesting and threatening to strike?

Perhaps, because they realize the commercial is using humor to get our attention.

@jpdanzig - They didn't insult a whole profession, they said "this conductor looks like a halibut". It was an insult to a single person, who just happened to be in that profession. Granted, they all probably look a little ganked up, and considering their response, they all probably look like ugly fish. That's what I surmise from this situation, at least.

It wasn't funny until now, when I applaud the CEO by responding with a much funnier joke. Good on him for not giving in to the PC craze. Luckily for him, these idiots probably can't afford his seafood anyway.

Having caught many halibut in my life, saying a conductor looks anything like a halibut is pretty harsh. Halibut's eyeballs migrate from one side of their body to the other as they grow older. That should say enough.

STOP SAY THAT!

OK, let's say your boss gives you t-shirts to wear for the next 12 months that says "I may have Genital Warts" as part of an ad deal he struck with Valtrex.

That would suck and its the same deal with the ads on a trolley.

I can see that I'm the kind of guy that might say, "Whatever, as long as you still pay me to come in late and leave early." but I can understand some people might be like, "Oh yeah, why don't you cram it?"

I don't give a hoot about what you think.

So conductors all look like fish?

For cod's sake, the ad was made just for the halibut. Those conductors should adopt a stance of a-tuna-mattata instead of koi-ing about it.

While I don't think it was a big deal initially, the CEO continuing to insult offended union members is a dumb idea. I've eaten at legal seafood before, and found it bland and over priced. I'm in a union and I don't have any problem not eating there until they make a full apology.

@NoWin:

You mean the one on Route 9? I went to Pine Manor many years ago and I have never, ever seen a tourist there. Why would a tourist be in Chestnut Hill? There are hills but no real chestnuts. Is the birthplace of Barbara Walters now an attraction of some sort?

(I did once see Julia Child at that Star Market, though.)

@NoWin: With overtime I bet a lot of MBTA drivers make as much as many of the people posting here.

@SkokieGuy: Did you really spend all that time composing that pointless, irrelevant comment?