The Real Gold Goes to the Bold
Freestyle may describe a particular type of competition in this year's Winter Olympics, but it more aptly defines the attitudes, mindset, and personalities of the Games' most controversial, and therefore media-savvy, athletes.
Bode Miller got the party started with the American mainstream media more than a month ago when he commented during a "60 Minutes" interview about skiing competitively under the influence of alcohol. Now (despite the less-than-stellar performance at the Games) he's a household name and has just signed a lucrative, multiyear contract with Nike.
An even lesser known Olympic athlete—figure skater Johnny Weir—is fast becoming the sport's most well-known and eccentric personality because of his tendency to speak his mind. When describing music and costumes, he uses phrases like a "Care Bear on acid" and an "icicle on coke"; following one of the best performances of his life this week in Torino (Turin), he said in a press conference that his critics can "eat it" if they don't like the things he says or does.
While grabbing every medal, title, and coveted endorsement with ease if not grace, the Flying Tomato (aka Shaun White) unabashedly admits to hating to lift weights and work out; and the US Snowboarding Team's gold and silver medalists in the women's halfpipe blatantly try to get into trouble just prior to their podium-stealing one-two punch by taking a joy ride down an "off limits" section of the mountain.
Is all this just a product of the Echo-Boom Generation, or is it something more? Could it possibly be smart marketing?
You bet it is. Today's consumers are tired of playing it straight; they want to be liberated by disobedience. Across all age groups it's increasingly important to be seen as someone who is willing to defy convention, and marketers who get that are attaching their brands to things that deliberately go against the grain.
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Kara Dullea is vice-president of public relations at the bounce agency (thebounceagency.com).
