The Canadian Hockey Association introduced a public-service campaign in November 2002 entitled, "Relax, It's Just A Game". The campaign was designed to raise awareness and end some of the inappropriate parental pressure toward young hockey players in Canada.

"Parents have been identified as one of the factors that can make the game fun for young kids, but pressure from parents is also one of the factors that make kids leave the game," said Sheldon Lanchbery, CHA Chair of the Board. "The CHA wants to take a leadership role. By launching this campaign we hope to assist in changing some of these unacceptable attitudes and behaviours."

With the tag line "What if kids pressured us the way we pressure them? Relax. It’s just a game", the campaign addresses the problem of the ‘bad hockey parent’ for the first time through public service announcements. The PSA’s use of humour to reverse roles in parent-child relationships by putting an impactful spin on the pressures some parents may put on their children involved in sports.

"These spots were designed to motivate parents to unite against ‘bad hockey parent’ behaviour. We are striving to make it become socially unacceptable to act this way. The pressures parents can put on children often takes the fun out of playing –aggressive behaviour ruins the game for everyone."

COMMENTARY...

The CHA will definitely be commended for its efforts to reduce the negative behaviour of parents in the stands. The campaign received rave reviews and wide-spread support when it was launched in November. However, since it was a public-service campaign, relying on the generousity of media sources to deliver the message, the campaign has fallen on many deaf ears. 

It is critical that any form of public awareness campaign be distributed on a broad scale, yet with the exception of an excellent web site presence, little has been seen of the "Relax, It's Just A Game" project.

Minor hockey officials will tell you that negative behaviour is still prevalent in the stands and on the bench, despite the efforts of the CHA. Another article on this web site, found in the "You Make The Call" section, describes the situation in a Northern Ontario community where the entire minor hockey association board has threatened to resign if a parent is allowed into the arenas to watch his son.

Fans continue to be ejected from arenas and coaches receive game misconducts for issuing threats to referees. 

The unfortunate reality is that the very people who should see the campaign videos are the same people who abuse the system. It is the old, "Not me" syndrome at work. The really bad apples never see themselves as bad - it's the referee's fault.

In speaking with hundreds of hockey fans who did see the video campaign, it was pointed out that while the message was clear with respect to the reversal of roles in the area of applied pressure, a lot of the message was lost because of the humourous aspect of the videos. For example, it was the opinion of most of those spoken to that when bad behaviour is evident in the stands, it is usually not because the parent is applying pressure to his/her son or daughter. In fact, much of the bad behaviour is a result of parents blaming the referee or other players for what they have done to the parent's child.