Priceline.com Should Retire New Pimp Spokesman "Big Deal"

The newest Priceline.com commercial opens with a familiar site -- William Shatner asking for an absurdly low price on a hotel room. But a new character named "Big Deal" who acts as the muscle behind Shatner's request has some Priceline customers saying the choice of new spokesman is a huge deal to them. Why? Because in dress and manner, Big Deal is clearly a pimp.

Matthias Giorgio is one of those Priceline.com customers who was upset when he learned Shatner's newest sidekick dressed and behaved like a stereotypical pimp. According to Giorgio,

"When it comes to finding a cheap flight to visit family, I usually look no further than Priceline.com. However, on my most recent visit to Priceline.com I was not only shocked, but rather appalled, to see a menacing individual donning a top hat and oversized white fur coat – basically the iconic image of a pimp - promoting Priceline’s signature 'big savings.' After a few Google searches, I learned that the character was Big Deal, the most recent sidekick to William Shatner’s 'Priceline Negotiator.'"

Giorgio was especially disturbed by his favorite travel site's poor choice of mascot because he has seen first-hand the violence that pimps can perpetrate. Last year, Giorgio was staying at a hotel, when he was awakened by breaking glass. Investigating, he witnessed a pimp beating a woman as she cried out. Giorgio was terrified as he waited for police who never arrived, because no one in the hotel called them. And to this day, he regrets not taking action to help the woman escape a brutal beating that night.

That's why Giorgio started a petition on Change.org asking Priceline.com to retire “Big Deal” and choose a mascot less reminiscent of the violence and exploitation pimps perpetrate on women and children. As Giorgio says,

"Priceline’s “Big Deal” may play the role of the muscle behind Shatner’s negotiations in the company's commercials, but Big Deal's attire reminds us that there are individuals - the real pimps - that use this very same mental and physical abuse to enslave our fellow human beings."

Pimps are criminals who profit from the exploitation of others, and often use violence, manipulation, and deceit to keep women and kids trapped. That's not an image an upstanding company like Priceline.com should be invoking. Period.

You can check out the original Big Deal commercial below, and join Giorgio and hundreds of other Change.org members in asking Priceline.com to stop glorifying pimps and retire Big Deal.