Mets give fan collectible with Phillies logo
Mere seconds after New York Mets fan Steven Mitzmacher walked through the gate and got his truck that he realized that the promotional giveaway had the logo of the team’s hated division rival, the Philadelphia Phillies.
“I looked down and I said to my brother-in-law, ‘What’s this?'” Mitzmacher said.
Courtesy Steven MizmacherLook closely: That is, in fact, a truck with a Phillies logo, despite the Mets packaging.
The truck that was given away at the Aug. 3 game against the San Francisco Giants, also featured the logos of W.B. Mason, the office supplies company that sponsors both the Mets and the Phillies.
“At first I thought that maybe the trucks had different logos on them, but when I looked around, everyone else had a Mets logo on the door of the truck,” said Mitzmacher, 28, who works in online marketing. “So I posted the picture on Twitter and Reddit to see how far it could go.”
News of the gaffe traveled slowly for days, but picked up steam on Tuesday as more and more outlets picked it up. A Mets spokesperson said the trucks were made by a vendor called Hit Promotional Products.
“Unfortunately, this turned out to be a case of human error during the packaging stage of production and we apologize that a few manufactured units of the incorrectly branded truck were placed in the wrong team packaging,” the company said in a statement given to ESPN.com. “We believe this is a very isolated issue that hadn’t occurred in the past, but will address to make sure mistakes like this don’t occur in the future.”
W.B. Mason has to be more careful than other companies. They not only sponsor the rival Mets and Phillies, they also sponsor both the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
Mitzmacher said he is going to keep the truck, but he’s going to have to tell his soon-to-be born child why he can’t take it out of the box in three years.
Said Mitzmacher: “When I’m 70, maybe I’ll take it to the Antique Roadshow.”
