The Dodgers are looking for a new advertising contract, according to Adweek, which notes that "sources said recent work by WongDoody featuring a family of bobblehead fans polarized those within the Dodgers organization."

Well, isn't that interesting? Guess that Grandpa's head exploding or being twisted around was symbolic.

What I found curious about this year's bobblehead concept, like it or not, was that there was no follow-through at Dodger Stadium itself. Back in the spring, I expected to find Bob Bobblehead on sale everywhere - to close the marketing circle, as it were. So to me, while the commercials themselves were of no artistic merit, the biggest flaw in the approach was that the Dodgers themselves seemed to embarrassed to acknowledge it in person.

Of course, it's easy to shoot down bad ideas - much harder to propse good ones. But I'll say this - you could do worse than just show 30 seconds of game action, of Vin Scully describing a dramatic confrontation, of Adrian Beltre or Eric Gagne being heroic. (No, I don't think Gagne's heroic days are over.) Do the ad as if this were the climatic 30 seconds of the 2004 highlight video. Yes, the Dodgers need to market to the casual baseball fan - but isn't casual all they've been doing in ads for years now? Perhaps the casual fan needs to be reminded that there's heat at the ballpark too.

Keep in mind that we're talking 2005 here - 2004 is done from a marketing standpoint. Most of the tickets have been sold already, or will be as the pennant race enters the final month. So the Dodgers need an approach that will work in the calm of March. Still, even in March, people need excitement. I think some people will find it a revelation that there actually is excitement at Dodger Stadium, not just light comedy and cotton candy. How about all of the above?