What planet am I from? I had a quick glimpse of this segment of the ESPN subway advertising campaign just the other day, but I didn't believe the text was serious! This item from today's "Metropolitan Diary" feature in the NYTimes clued me in.

Dear Diary:

You can count on a New Yorker to critically assess any major advertising campaign. Take the current ESPN campaign that promotes the virtues of sports via posters on bus shelters and in subways. One poster shows a group of professional cheerleaders, complete with big hair, official uniforms and flat midriffs. "Without sports they'd just be dancers," the poster's headline reads.

But that poster was placed on the No. 1 train that runs along the West Side stopping near the Joyce Theater, the Broadway shows and the American Ballet Theater at Lincoln Center. A dancer (or dance appreciator), presumably, has cleverly amended the slogan by taping alternative signs on the second and sixth words.

The new, improved, and culturally correct poster of the cheerleaders now reads: "Without dance they'd just be trophies."

Ginger Curwen