Kraken, NHL ‘Hot For Hockey’ Part II
((Editor’s alert for readers: This story includes explicit sexual references))
The monorail taking Seattle Kraken fans to home games weaves smoothly between the exterior walls of the Museum of Pop Culture. Not at all resembling the Kraken pop culture interaction that derailed in 2023.
The NHL this season started down the same wobbly track, before discontinuing its “Hot For Hockey” promotion after one week. The lesson they belatedly learned from Kraken history is recounted here.
‘Scoring Is So Much Fun’
The social media video site TikTok has a subsection called BookTok, created to talk about books. BookTok itself has a subsection dedicated to adult romance novels with an ice hockey tie-in. For example, The O Zone.
Clever title, in a double entendre sort of way. The author writes, “He’s on the defensive against love. But scoring is so much fun.”
To enhance their enjoyment of these hockey romance stories, some in the BookTok community imagine real-life NHL players in place of their fictional book counterparts.
The Kraken social media team, doing what is often a rewarding strategy for companies, pursued what’s known in auto racing as “drafting.”
Racers get behind the lead car; with lower wind resistance, they’re essentially tugged along by the lead vehicle. In the same way, social media entities identify an individual or topic that’s trending, and draft in behind it or them for reflected attention. The enormous popularity of hockey romance on BookTok could make some readers into Kraken fans.
Kraken Center Of Attention
Players including Alex Wennberg were featured by the team in BookTok-style, so-called “thirsty” videos (Image 1). The daily dot reported, “One video posted by the Kraken, since deleted, featured Wennberg in a suit walking in slow-motion with the caption, ‘When you accidentally become a BookTok account & now that’s all you can post.'” Even mascot Buoy was in one, holding a romance novel (Image 2).
The videos did their job. A prominent BookToker named Kierra Lewis (Image 3) introduced her more than 1 million followers to the Kraken in general, and to Wennberg in particular. The problem is that Lewis’ commentary sank into a decidedly raunchy muck.
(**Asterisks indicate readers should use discretion, because of explicit content transcribed from Lewis’ videos.)
** “I wake up every day praying to Jesus to turn me into ice, because what I wouldn’t give to have that man glide on me.”
Kierra Lewis Comes To Seattle
The Kraken invited Lewis to a home playoff game. Great lower bowl seats, plus a box of swag which included a Kraken sweater with a “BookTok” nameplate and number 1 affixed to its back.
Kierra wins. The team wins. What could be wrong when it feels so right?
Well, if Lewis’ video comments had been any more explicit, they would have been rejected by Pornhub.
** “Alex Wennberg. Baby, I don’t have a five-hole, but I got three. And since you’re so good at assists, why don’t you assist your teammates in scoring in all three … ”
Intent Wasn’t The Issue
As CentennialWorld.com observed, “Accounts outside the BookTok community endorsed this behavior, illustrating how things can quickly spiral out of control when official pages like @seattlekraken or @nhl get involved.
“With the disconnect between the players and the team’s social media management, it’s clear that capitalizing off these fantasies is not only an irresponsible but also an ethically questionable approach to building a TikTok presence.”
Was Lewis being sincere? She would say later it was all in fun. Just jokes. It’s true that so-called influencers say and do things to get clicks, not necessarily because they mean what they say. Intent isn’t really the issue anyway. The comments were made. They were “O” as in offensive.
The Wennbergs had read and seen enough. The pushback involving the player and his spouse, his team, and the BookTok community is a story told in the concluding part 3.
