Lightning strike survivors group criticizes Drew Brees for publicity stunt

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For a little while on Friday morning, many believed that former NFL quarterback Drew Brees had been struck by lightning while filming a commercial during an area in Venezuela that features many cloud-to-ground lightning strikes per day. He wasn’t.

The publicity stunt was, as such things go, fairly well executed. The initial accounts emerged via tweets in Spanish. PointsBet, the perpetrator of the poor-taste fake out, issued a vague statement in lieu of acknowledging that the video was phony.

Plenty of online know-it-alls acted like they knew it was fake all along. Few of them opted to say so before it became clear that Brees was fine.

In the end, it was indeed a marketing scam, aimed at drawing attention to “lightning” bets being offered by PointsBet.

Since then, the Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Survivors International has spoken out about situation.

“The recent Drew Brees lightning commercial is an inappropriate, disgusting method of promoting gambling or any TV commercial campaign,” the group said in a statement issued to TMZ.com. “This is a deadly injury, and it is disappointing to see the continual ridicule of lightning and electrical injury survivors in comical light in which it is presented for commercial gain and profit.”

Lightning deaths are rare, but they happen. According to the CDC, 444 Americans died from lightning strikes from 2006 through 2021.

It’s indeed hard to see the humor or the appeal in the idea that Brees pretended to be struck by lightning. I know Brees well enough to have spent a chunk of Friday morning wondering whether he had actually died.

But, hey, it apparently worked. Maybe an upcoming Caesars sports book bit will create the impression that Peyton Manning was eaten by an alligator. Maybe DraftKings will make us think that Kevin Hart was swallowed by a boa constrictor. Maybe FanDuel will make it look like Pat McAfee got shot and killed in an actual duel with a fan.

I mean, the possibilities are now limitless. Get on it, Don Draper.

21 responses to “Lightning strike survivors group criticizes Drew Brees for publicity stunt

  1. So how many comedies have we seen that poke fun at being struck by lightening. Is the scene in Caddy Shack no longer funny? Can’t do anything without someone being offended so I say offend everyone. Can’t go through life walking on egg shells.

  2. The pervasive and relentless marketing of sports gambling (the endless budget for which should tell you something as a potential consumer) feels very dystopian. Can we at least put a cap on the amount and the type of gambling marketing we must be subjected to?

  3. Blogger jumps the gun, posts that this was real and now, because the blogger was fooled, he keeps posting about this in an effort to take attention away from his mistake and not fact checking things. Sad.

  4. Don Draper pretended to be an overzealous Navy leader willing to sacrifice pilots in Top Gun:Maverick

  5. It’s hysterical that there’s a group for everything. And of course they’re always offended.

  6. The world’s gone to hell. These complainers are the least likely people in the world to get hit with lightning (again).

  7. On the list of things to get angry over, this ranks pretty low on the list. Everyday my faith in humanity is chipped away. I’m tired of anger over everything.

  8. Why does this feel like a story from The Onion? Oh no, the Lighting Strike Survivors are pissed. All 75 of them. Unreal.

  9. Could the Lightning be a clue that Drew is coming back to the Chargers and will replace Hebert? Ha ha ha

  10. That new Peyton Manning soccer commercial really got under my nerves. I dropped a dictionary on my foot in college and to see him handle one as recklessly as he did is an affront to anyone with a similar injury.

  11. Whenever I encounter someone IRL who is triggered by something trivial, I do my best to ensure that they have something REAL to worry about. Try snagging their car keys for a couple hours, then “finding” them later. They quit being worried about their trivialities.

  12. dk61 says:
    December 3, 2022 at 2:28 pm
    Whenever I encounter someone IRL who is triggered by something trivial, I do my best to ensure that they have something REAL to worry about. Try snagging their car keys for a couple hours, then “finding” them later. They quit being worried about their trivialities.

    —————–

    ^Clear Millennial or GenZ.^^

  13. Less than 30 people per year die from a lightning strike.
    Thousands more die from not having a sense of humour.

  14. Well of course they did, I’m terribly hurt also, my neighbor, my son, my daughter, the mailman, we are all saddened by his comments.

  15. Probably hundreds of thousands of people lose money gambling some of them all they have and this is what is the problem. People getting stuck by lighting.

  16. The first part that is sad about this is that there is a group “lightening strike survivors”??? I am officially starting a group called “walking across the street survivors” – you are welcome to join.

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