Iowa prep track coach pokes fun at Justin Bieber in recruiting campaign
Seeing is Beliebing. That was the general principle behind an amazing promotional poster using Justin Bieber's mugshot that should result in Ankeny (Iowa) Centennial High's girls track and field team competing for a state title if there's any justice in this world.
In an effort to encourage girls to come out for his team this season, Centennial coach Andrew Kruzich concocted a tongue-in-cheek poster with the following message (h/t USA TODAY): “JUSTIN BIEBER NEVER RAN TRACK. NOW HE’S IN JAIL. Coincidence? Don’t Beliebe it. Don’t end up like Bieber. Run track.”
In recent weeks, Bieber, who Kruzich dubbed a "pop phenom/spoiled little twerp" in a post on the team's website, has allegedly smacked his limo driver in Toronto, egged his neighbor's home in California, drunkenly drag-raced his Lamborghini in Miami and endured a drug raid of his private plane that turned up nothing in New Jersey.
Naturally, the running community has embraced Kruzich's creativity, transforming a simple poster into a viral phenomenon. He has tracked the campaign's success in a few updates on the team website, including his dream of getting Bieber to sign a copy of the poster that could fetch enough on eBay to pay for an indoor track facility. He wrote:
Let me be clear about a couple of things. Number one, all I was trying to do was announce a meeting. That can be done with a normal flyer or with something a little more creative that would give kids a chuckle on their way to class. That’s all this ever was meant to do, as I didn’t really expect that kids would come out just because a flyer was funny. I’m also happy that out of all the comments, emails, tweets and school chatter, not one person has thought of this as anything malicious or mean-spirited. That’s good. I don’t wish substance abuse or the trappings of fame on anybody, but the choices JB makes in how he treats people left him open to a joke in my judgment. I’m glad that everybody got the joke.
Secondly, at the end of the day we are about a team, not about a poster. And now that those posters are coming down and our sign-up sheets are filling up, we can move on to the real work of the season: working hard, supporting each other, competing our tails off, and yes -- having some fun. It’s what the Biebs would want.
Go Jaguars!
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