Let me first say this billboard has my vote for "Best Billboard Of The Year" if that's even a thing. I love it! Without further delay, let me show you the billboard...
VB & I are on the same page here! What a brilliant move by this local jewelry company out of Sturbridge. With all the hype and controversy going on about "taking a knee", this company gets it. If we can't kid around about it, what can we do? You have to lighten it up a bit because we all need a little humor with all the serious stuff going on in the news.
With that being said, this jewelry store, Garieri Jewelers on Main Street in Sturbridge, MA is receiving death threats for being insensitive about this NFL/taking a knee movement over injustice for African Americans, that Kaepernick started and is leading. Owner Scott Garieri and his daughter/manager, Alexandria O'Brien have said they have gotten hundreds of Facebook messages and even one telling Ms. O'Brien to "kill herself". When asked about the social outrage over the billboard, O'Brien said, “People have said they’re going to urinate on our property, vomit on our showcases, and I was told to kill myself, I am not going to kill myself. I can assure you that. And the billboard is not coming down. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. But when you tell someone to go kill themself, you have absolutely crossed the line.”
Both Scott and his daughter Alexandria have acknowledged that they are Trump supporters but that's no excuse for this type of social outrage and death threats. As of right now, the police have not been called or involved in the situation. O'Brien claims they did not reach out to police because she doesn't know if they could do anything about it.
Apparently the billboard ad was suggested by Scott's brother who is a retired jeweler. While a lot are criticizing, not all. One supporter of it says, "It’s promoting love. It’s promoting getting engaged,” he said with a chuckle. “For the last 200 years people have been getting on one knee to get engaged. With this billboard, we blended two things: taking a knee to get engaged and people taking a knee at the football games."
Scott Garieri himself said, when asked about if he has regrets putting up the billboard: "I stand behind it 100 percent. It was not ever made to make any racist connotation to it. We took a play of words and put a little spin on it.”
Good. I say, if you're going to take a stance, don't back-pedal on it and Scott isn't. Good for him. I think the ad's funny and if anything, it does get your attention. There goes the old saying, "any publicity is good publicity". I didn't know Garieri Jewelers before, but I do now...
-Producer Lightning