Hasta La Creative!

Boston maintains its perfect record for reacting to ad campaings with humorlessness as the MBTA prepares to remove Legal Sea Foods’ “Fresh Fish” subway ads that poked fun at drivers on the Green Line. (The “fresh” quips include “This conductor has a face like a halibut.”) Stephan MacDougall, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union, tells the Boston Globe that he fielded 40 phone calls from Green Line workers incensed by the ads: “To say they are angered and offended is to put it lightly. If they don’t come down, we will not drive those trains.” Deana Cruthird, a T rider and a local voice of sanity, retorts: “You can’t take everything personally.” Hey, I don’t “take it personally” when those $20 Charlie Cards I’ve used for one $2 ride mysteriously won’t scan and I’m “asked politely” (usually through clenched teeth and with strident explanations about how the scanner’s never wrong) to cough up some cash or get off the train. These people aren’t halibut. When it comes to a dollar, they’re sharks! UPDATE: The Boston Globe, angling for a Pulitzer, notes that Legal’s CEO has offered “a fishy apology.” The paper should clam up, already!

—Posted by David Gianatasio