The Celebrity of Athletes

Everyone has seen the Gatorade ads, the Nike commercials, and the billboards advertising their products with a popular athlete in the foreground. Athletes can use these advertisements to shape their image while also inspiring youth at the same time.

            Gatorade can be very picky about the athletes it chooses to appear in the advertisements. When young athletes see those Gatorade commercials, the makers want kids to be like “Wow, I want to be just like that famous athlete” which will cause them to then support Gatorade because their idol is backing it. Is it a bad thing for the athlete? Well not necessarily, many professional teams are endorsed by Gatorade and do in fact use their product to boost electrolytes and replenish their systems in order to perform fully throughout the entire game. Granted, one would not want to see a professional athlete advertising for a brand such as Marlboro Cigarettes. However, the chances of athletes endorsing anything other than sport related products are highly unlikely.

            While product advertising is popular, athletes are getting their names out there by supporting companies such as the Play 60 movement. This allows young kids to get on the field with professional athletes for a day and play sports with them in order to advocate physical activity. This gets the athlete good advertising by making good relationships with the kids, who will go home and look to support that player in different ways based on the connection they made. This is also a big endorsement for the community, trying to help get kids outside and playing in order to keep active and a healthy life style.

            While athletes are considered regular people, they do have a higher image to uphold. If professional athletes continue to advocate programs such as Play 60, and remain committed to companies such as Gatorade, their image can only improve. There will probably be an even bigger movement for athlete support in advertising as time goes on, but for right now I think athletes are devoting their face time to respectable causes, which helps both them and the community.

YouTube Killed The Radio Star

            Today’s music artists are consumed with the struggle as to how to market themselves these days. So many young artists are being forced to make themselves marketable by taking on a face of sexuality. As we saw with the recent Miley Cyrus performance, her over the top show of sexuality and lack of clothing was not taken very well, but some have said that her whole show was completely planned to be over the top. To an extent, it totally worked. Still today people are talking about that performance and the talk the few weeks right after was all about her. The best way for artists to market themselves these days in through their performances. Many country stars are having sold out shows because everyone knows those shows are a giant party. Pink recently just had a performance in D.C where she did an amazing acrobatics performance flying through the air. Pink is another artist who is known for her shows.

            These shows translate into big money for the performers. Think about it; say someone pays one hundred dollars for a ticket to a concert. Then the concert seats three thousand people(which would be a small audience for them), that means that show alone made $300,000. And that doesn’t include sales of t-shirts, DVD’s, and any sorts of concessions. So that includes one show, and these artists are touring the world 8 months out of a year.

            These shows are a huge money makers for performers and I believe the word of mouth marketing they get out of the performances are the best type of advertising they could possibly get. However, many have resorted to endorsements from popular companies. While many would see this as a way of lower their standards, it is making them money and putting their face to a company. If it will advance them by getting their face out there and having more people see them, more power to them. They have to make a living as well so why not make the extra money for themselves while getting advertising time for themselves?

Shouting The News

            News today is extremely biased. I don’t care what anyone says about in the middle news stations, no. In some way or another they are biased in either the way they speak, their demeanor, or what opinions they bring to the table. I watch Bill O’Reilly and listen to Sean Hannity on the radio all the time. Both are without doubt right-winged conservatives and make no attempt to hide that fact.

            Bill O’Reilly is usually very good at sticking to strictly political arguments and has a way of getting his point across is a very straight forward sort of manner. His guests are typically democrats who he likes to sit back and shut down their opinions on just about every issue he brings about. While he brings about controversial issues, he allows both sides to make their argument, even if he is very strong willed in proving the left-winged side wrong. He can without a doubt be rude in many different ways. He is extremely stubborn and has no intentions of approaching any sort of issue in a open-minded fashion. This form of news delivery is very entertaining, especially for a conservative such as myself. While he is very opinionated, his logic and reasoning is based on and backed up with truthful facts that he brings to the table.

            Sean Hannity is yet another right-winged conservative who is quite stubborn. Hannity does have a television show, yet I listen to him more on talk radio. He is an advocate for educating young students interested in political issues. He recently had a group of college kids on the show discussing foreign affairs. Hannity is another stubborn broadcaster, yet is more willing to hear opposing viewpoints. He even advocates that opposing opinions call into the show to try and contradict what he says. However argument style discussion does tend to ensue soon after. Hannity is very fact based, he even comes into the show with studies that have been conducted and asks opinions on them, and follows up with how he feels on the situation.

            Both of these broadcasters are two of my favorites. I have yet to find an issue I don’t agree with either of them on, which most likely plays quite a big role in this decision. I do learn a lot from these two, as they discuss current events and issues. While they may be biased by being totally right-winged, they make no effort to try and conceal their opinions as equal minded at all. 

Reality Television

Duck Dynasty. The show which this very blog is named after. What a gift to the world. These Louisiana rednecks went from rags to riches yet have still maintained their redneck attitudes and lifestyles along the way, yet now have the money to supply their genius ideas.
Phil Robertson created a innovative new duck shot and duck call many years ago which ended up making him and his family millions of dollars. However, this down to earth man wouldn't allow his family to get caught up in the "yuppie" lifestyle of fame and fortune. While many people think this show is all about dumb rednecks, which I mean in part it really is, it shows how to keep a family lifestyle through all tracks of life.

Once this show aired on A&E over a year ago, many people fell in love with the Robertson lifestyle. Who wouldn't love to be able to race tractors, shoot things, blow up whatever you want while having the money to replace anything you broke in the process. This family does have some values that the regular world could benefit from, including their strong family ties and how each and every show ends with them all together around a dinner table praying and eating together. A&E has recently tried to tell the Robertsons that they must stop praying at the end of each show or else the show would get cancelled. Well, the family basically said then screw the show. If that doesn't show you a strong core sense of values over the fame factor, I don't know what will. Grandfather Phil and Uncle Si are constantly showing their "suburb living, yuppie grandchildren" a down home way of living. They always have the grandkids over teaching them to hunt, cook, and work to earn what they have. These kids are some of the most respectful group of young adults TV has ever seen, and can teach todays youth something about respecting your elders and your lifestyle.

Aside from the comedic portion of this show, it really does teach a good lesson. That fame shouldn't overcome your family values. That hard work and dedication is what gets you where they are today. That no matter how much money you make, appreciating a job well done is more beneficial than any possible paycheck. And hey, if every once in a while you ditch work to go hunting or blow some shit up, have at it, you only have one life to live, so live it right the first time.

Newspapers: Survival of the Techies

Who even receives newspapers anymore? Is there any reason to spend the money to subscribe to these print stories anymore? Why not just watch the news if you want to know whats happening in the world? The only reason people today even consider buying a newspaper is if there child made it into the sports section as the "Next MLB Star" or "High School Star Signs to Play Division I Ball" Personally, when I am on my way to school at 6 in the morning, I specifically take a different route than I usually would because I know on a certain road I will get stuck behind the idiot trying to toss newspapers out his window to the residents. I always ask myself, "why does he even bother? These people all have TV's and iPads that they get their news from." There is no point to the print version anymore unless you want an article to frame because your child is the new Whiz Kid.

This is exactly why only the technologically savvy newspapers will move forward. The New York Times has taken leaps and bounds to be that forward news report that people will still subscribe to, even if it is online. Even the print version is the largest local newspaper in the United States. However they have moved from a "all the news thats fit to print" to a "all the news that's fit to click" motto in order to attract those who depend on their smartphones and computers. Even with this transfer, they have yet to lose any information. They are one of the only papers that have chosen to keep the eight column news instead of half-assing and switching to six columns to condense the reading. People will read more if it means that the information is prevalent to their lives. Instead of lessen their reports and losing potential clients that read those two thrown away columns, they still keep their broad range of audiences while keeping the news concise and straight forward.

The New York Times is one of the hardest newspapers to become a writer at, only selecting the cream of the crop writers to commit to their columns. With a reputation like that, and having most everyone know that fact, people are more drawn to read their news because of the guarantee of a well written piece even if they are uninterested in the content. There still are people in the world that enjoy works that are well written even if the content is lacking. Poorly written articles with extreme content are essentially worthless because no one wants to hear a cool story told by a third grader. That same story coming from someone with a Master's degree is more likely to sink in and believed than if you chatted up a homeless person on the side of the road. 

The Times will survive. Their movement to apps and online subscriptions will keep them in the game as long as the news keeps rolling, which it always will. Don't be that idiot that listens to what a third grader tells you and takes it to heart. Know what you are reading, and who it is coming from. With the New York Times, there is no disappointment.

The Impact of the Cover: Should We Care?

All around the world we hear people complaining about how celebrities on the cover of magazines are extremely airbrushed and fake. People are outraged that the companies could lie to a nation like that and create a false sense of what beauty really is. Well guess what people, it's time to get your priorities straight. Stop worrying about who is on the cover of People magazine and start reading the headlines of real issues. The cover is there to catch your eye, and as much as the image may be fake, your biggest concern should be that the unrealistic image you're looking at is causing such a commotion in your mind. Honestly, who cares if Charlie Sheen is going through a divorce or Beyonce had ugly pictures taken at the Super Bowl half time show. Read a real magazine with real issues. I read Time magazine and for a specific reason. Time can appeal to most audiences with a wide range of stories. When I am in a store, these kinds of magazines appeal to me because I could care less about the celebrities whom aren't affecting my life, and don't care to have to fumble through the ten thousand subtitles on the cover of gossip magazines just to find the actual headline.

My two images are of one Time cover that strives to give college athletes(like myself) more credit. Another is a headline about the world through Vladimir Putin's eyes. These are thought provoking covers which also have a very simplistic and basic picture that in no way could cause any controversy. The diversity in images is lacking because pictures are only posted based on what is pertinent to the story. No "baby pictures from the UK", no "which celebrity has gained the most weight," it is straight to the point. And get this, inside the magazine, they have STORIES. Politic stories, economic stories, all articles which are actually affecting our lives today. Imagine that. Put down the crap you have, stop worrying about whether Miranda Lambert sent her husband to rehab and get in touch with the world around you. Once people begin to become engage in real life, we may stop having such an ignorant group of idiots walking our streets.