A few days ago we mentioned a controversy that was going on in Boston after some trolley conductors objected to an advertising campaign for Legal Sea Foods “fresh fish.” The controversial ad reads, “This conductor has a face like a halibut.” Now Legal Sea Food’s CEO has decided to strike back against the offended conductors with a sarcastic “apology.”

“We should have never, ever said, ‘This conductor has a face like a halibut,’ when the truth is, most conductors don’t look anything at all like halibuts,” Berkowitz says in the new radio advertisement, produced by the New York ad agency DeVito/Verdi. “Some look more like groupers or flounders. I’ve even seen a few who closely resemble catfish. And there’s one conductor on the Green Line that looks remarkably like a hammerhead shark. So we feel very badly about this mischaracterization, and we won’t let it happen again.”

Is this war?

“We don’t think his fish is as fresh as he is,” said Stephan MacDougall, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union, which represents operators working for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. “He’s misguided and misdirected. He is suffering from elitism and needs to do some self-examination.”

MacDougall says the he’s encouraging his union’s members, members of other unions, and working-class families to boycott Legal Sea Foods. Fight!

Legal Sea Foods chief offers MBTA operators a sort of fishy apology [Boston Globe]

(Photo: Ben + Sam )

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