Ads for Campus Slasher Movie Upset Football Viewers

ESPN has been getting flack for airing an array of advertisements for “Sorority Row,” a violent slasher movie in which sorority sisters are stalked and killed, during its coverage of college football’s kickoff weekend. The ads struck particularly close to home for a number of Florida State University fans who were watching the Sept. 7 game versus the University of Miami. One viewer wrote to ESPN’s new ombudsman, "Those of us who lived in sorority houses at Florida State when Ted Bundy entered the Chi Omega house (in 1978) and murdered our friends, are beyond offended. A great football night was repeatedly interrupted with bad memories because someone chose to remind us of a terrible winter night that changed many of our lives forever." Don Ohlmeyer, ESPN’s ombudsman, wrote in his column Wednesday that “it’s difficult to fault ESPN for not catching the Bundy-Florida State connection” but ultimately chided the network for its poor decision. Ohlmeyer concluded, “If you wrap yourself in the mantle of college football to the extent ESPN does, you might have to make an occasional financial sacrifice to protect it. Put the 'Sorority Row' spots in ‘SportsCenter,’ NFL, MLB or other such programs, but a campus slasher movie strikes too close to home in a college football game.”