Up-dated with video: Old Navy ad has some Auburn fans calling for boycott

Some Auburn University fans have called for a boycott of Old Navy after the retailer aired a television commercial that shows an Auburn fan bringing pizza to a University of Alabama party. The Auburn faithful believe the Tigers fan in the commercial -- dressed in a Tiger costume and riding a four-wheeler -- is portrayed in a foolish manner or as a pizza delivery man.
A Facebook page calling for the boycott had 299 endorsements by Friday night, and a manager at the Old Navy store nearest the Auburn campus said she's hearing from lots of angry Tigers.
"The Auburn fans have not been very happy about it, because they think it portrays Auburn in a bad light, as kind of a joke," said Katlyn Peters, assistant manager of the Opelika Old Navy store. "The Alabama fans love it, though."
The commercial, which began airing last week, shows a group of Alabama fans gathering in a garage to watch a game, clad in UA T-shirts and sweatshirts from Old Navy. As the fans sing about Old Navy college- and pro-branded clothes to music from the Night Ranger song "Sister Christian," a man in an Auburn T-shirt and Tiger costume arrives astride the four-wheeler -- also decorated like a Tiger -- while carrying a stack of Domino's pizzas.
"He brought pizza, he's all right," sings a boy sporting a Crimson Tide shirt.
The commercial set off an avalanche of criticism on Auburn Internet message boards and led to the creation of the Facebook page advocating the boycott, which declares, "This is just plain wrong!!!"
Efforts to reach officials at Old Navy's corporate offices were not successful. The CEO of the company is Birmingham native Tom Wyatt, who once ran the Parisian department store chain. Wyatt, a graduate of Vestavia Hills High School and former student at Jefferson State Community College, did not attend Auburn or Alabama.
Efforts to reach officials in the offices of advertising agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky, which represents Old Navy and Domino's, also were not successful.
The commercial, which is airing nationally, is not a departure from form for Old Navy or Crispin Porter, said Mark Ervin, chief brand officer for Birmingham-based Big Communications. Crispin Porter, with offices in Los Angeles, Miami and Boulder, Colo., has a reputation for edgy ads that stir controversy, he said.
But in this case, Ervin said, the agency may not have fully understood just what it was getting into.
"They delved deep into a battle in which they don't know the turf," he said. "I don't think they have any clue how deep the division is between the two schools. They probably could have done better homework to understand the passion that the two fan bases have."
Still, Ervin said, the commercial is likely to go viral on the Internet and generate just the sort of buzz that advertising executives hope for.
"I think they'll get their money's worth," he said.
While the commercial has definitely ruffled some Tiger fur, it has done nothing to dent sales at the Opelika Old Navy, Peters said. Eighty-five percent of that store's customers are Auburn fans, and it doesn't even carry Alabama clothing, she said. Customers have expressed their displeasure with the commercial, she said, but they've not stopped coming.