For a Minnesota minor league baseball team understood for a history of extravagant promos, the idea of calling its long time live pig mascot after the weight reduction drug Ozempic made perfect sense.
The St. Paul Saints rapidly discovered that not everyone was entertained by the pig's name, Ozempig, or the team's posting of a backstory about the pig's shame at putting on weight and guarantee to attempt to stay trim.
Almost immediately after the group revealed the name today ahead of Saturday's opening day video game, criticism started pouring in on social media from individuals distressed by the name, calling it upsetting and insensitive.
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Sean Aronson, the Saints' vice president and media relations director, said the team just desired an amusing, topical name for its pig when it chose Ozempig from almost 2,300 entries in its "Name the Pig Contest." Team authorities were surprised that a lot of people found the name offensive, Aronson stated.
This image supplied by the St. Paul Saints shows a pig named Ozempig on Thursday, March 28, at a farm in Wisconsin. (St. Paul Saints Baseball via AP).
" In today's world, individuals do not wish to be lessened, they don't wish to be made to feel a particular way and I'm not going to inform them how they feel is wrong," Aronson stated. "But I can inform you there was no ill-intent, there was no maliciousness, there was never ever even a conversation in the room when we were going over the name that hey, this may anger some people.".
Ozempic is amongst a number of brand-new drugs that worked at helping people lose substantial weight. The drugs can be expensive, depending on insurance coverage, however have actually drawn extensive attention in part due to the fact that the have actually been promoted by celebrities and on social networks sites.
The Saints' pig is a cherished participant in the group's games played at CHS Field in downtown St. Paul, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the much bigger home of the Minnesota Twins in downtown
Minneapolis. The animal performs balls to the umpire and throughout the summer becomes noticeably bigger-- a lot larger in truth that another young pig takes over tasks midway through the season.
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Calling the pig mascot after the prominent drug appeared a natural for the Saints, a Triple-A affiliate of the Twins that has a long history of amusing promotions, such as connecting a fan to a Velcro wall in the outfield and holding races in the infield between people impersonated huge eyeballs.
With such previous stunts in mind, some Saints fans protected the name as a play on words and absolutely nothing more.
Aronson said team authorities comprehended why some individuals are outraged and considered going far change but chose to stick to Ozempig.
" We knew how we initially developed the name and we're good with it however we did discuss it and decided we're going to keep it," he stated.
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