This past Saturday night, prior to CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada game coverage, the NHL and the Toronto Maple Leafs honoured their players who won the Stanley Cup in 1963. Some of the most famous names ever to play the game sat in pairs in the back of Mustang convertibles as they slowly drove out on to the ice for the pre-game presentation to get some well deserved recognition 50 years later.

Ford got great exposure, not just in the sold out arena but on national TV, with their shiny black Mustangs and Ford promo license plates. The other marketing opportunity that slipped away on the ice? One for a winter tire manufacturer!

It was hilarious. As slow as the cars were moving, they could hardly move forward and then could barely stop. They even had some volunteers pushing the cars sideways to keep them moving in a straight line…..like cowboys herding horses!

If I were a thinking marketing manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs, I would have sold a sponsorship to a maker of winter tires that are made to perform on the slipperiest conditions like ice in a hockey arena. What a perfect demonstration this would have been for that tire maker with unbelievable exposure. What a missed revenue opportunity for the team too. Oh well. Another one slips away. I wonder what the obligatory pretty girls who were on the ice during the ceremony were wearing on their feet?