Ball Dogs

Another campaign in the form of an open letter, or rather, that was just the start.  It was from pet insurance brand ManyPets (formerly, Bought by Many) to the organisers of Wimbledon, making the case for ‘ball dogs’ instead of ball girls and ball boys.  An excerpt:

Consider this. They are fast and they are fit, on the sidelines they will sit. They have four legs which are better than two, they will live to serve Emma Raducanu. Because there has never been any human with more passion than they, whose whole world revolves around tennis balls and a purpose to play.

It’s time for the Labrador to retrieve and the Boxer to show what he has up his sleeve. The Sheepdog will leap and the Collie will shine, the dogs will be champions, because now is their time. They will be the best ball girls and ball boys that the world has ever seen. They will be focused and dedicated, they will be tennis ball machines. We ask that you consider our plea, to give our furry friends a try as your official Ball Boys and Ball Girls in 2023.

This was then followed with a trial at a local tennis club that got quite a bit of media coverage.  In an interview to the BBC, one of the people behind the initiative, had this to say about the results:

…the results varied from spectacular on one end of the spectrum to something varying towards chaos on the other end.  I think it's fair to say that we kind of have some work in progress and we've got a long way to go before we'll be ready for next year but we're optimistic…

Nonetheless, the social media campaign continued, with some creative punning: