The Rodeo Association and All-Star Rodeo Challenge

Pene­lope Trunk had a hor­ri­ble time at the All-Star Rodeo Chal­lenge in Madi­son, Wisconsin:

I really hated it before there were any ani­mals. Before there were ani­mals there was the flag, ris­ing above the dirt ring, and the announcer say­ing every­one should sing the Star Span­gled Ban­ner to honor “the flag that pro­tects our troops, and our churches and our great country.”

I looked over at the farmer for churches, and before I could roll my eyes, the announcer said, “Every­one please rise in the name of Jesus and sing the Star Span­gled Banner.”

I told my kids to stay seated…

Then, out of nowhere, the clown brought out a wig, that had dread­locks, and he put on a Rasta­far­ian hat, and he started pre­tend­ing that he was Barack Obama. He said, “I feel so pres­i­den­tial.” And he made jokes about whether Obama is a US citizen.

There were report­edly other issues as well — namely, cheer­lead­ers act­ing at the rodeo sug­ges­tively in a way that involved two women and a horse as well as an announcer who mixed polit­i­cal com­men­tary into the “fun.” I have never been to a rodeo — I think I would not enjoy myself , either — but I would be inter­ested to hear what read­ers from Wis­con­sin think about this.

In any event, Trunk asked her read­ers to tweet this:

@McDonalds Racism is not okay and nei­ther is hate. Please stop your sup­port of the All-Star Rodeo. http://bit.ly/4AiXT1

I just did.

In addi­tion, Trunk’s post is a per­fect exam­ple of the need for mar­keters and public-relations peo­ple to keep abreast of Web 2.0 and social-media net­works. In the old days, you usu­ally knew when an attack was com­ing from the local news­pa­per; today, it can come from any­where — even just one blog on the Inter­net. Or at the rodeo.