REEBOK TONES DOWN AD
By Chris Reidy, THE BOSTON GLOBE

The hip-hop star 50 Cent was set to star in a new television commercial for Reebok International starting on Tuesday that contains a tamer story line than a previous ad widely criticized as glorifying violence.

In one scene, 50 Cent plays a street baseball game called stickball with the Boston Red Sox slugger Manny Ramírez.

That's a far cry from the rapper's last Reebok TV ad, which the sneaker company pulled off the air in Britain after it was criticized. In that ad, which ran briefly in the United States in the spring, the camera panned on 50 Cent as one of his songs served as the soundtrack: "Shot nine times in Jamaica, Queens/Tell me, who you planning to massacre next?"

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