The World's Oddest Endorsers

From: Fotopedia

I saw some very odd commercials with celebrity endorsers, endorsers that just didn't seem to fit the product.

The first spot featured an actor who I always enjoy watching, Willem Dafoe. We watch Dafoe in a variety of costumes and prosthetic devices. At the end of the spot, we see he's pitching...Jim Beam?

If that wasn't odd enough, why is a post-menopausal Whoopi Goldberg shilling for bladder control products? Huh?

Nuclear Meltdown

From: Pierre J.'s Flickr account

I used to think that a Hollywood star that generated insane amounts of money for a studio had a license to do whatever they wanted with their personal life. Charlie Sheen must have thought that, too.

After already putting his hit show "Two and a Half Men" on hiatus, twice, Sheen went on a profane, anti-Semitic rant regarding his boss, Chuck Lorre, on Thursday. I wondered what the reaction of Lorre and CBS would be, thinking they might give him another free pass. Apparently not, though.

It's too bad that Hollywood stars don't face consequences of their actions every time they break the law. Yes, I know there's a lot of money involved, but I would like to see a studio draw the line with their talents' behavior. Who knows, they may behave.

Now That's A Race!

From: Bleacher Report

Last year, the Daytona 500 was miserable to watch. I can only imagine how frustrated the fans were. Red flags, delays, defective pot holes and a six hour race do not make for compelling TV.

Fortunately, this year was about a perfect a story as you could write for NASCAR. A record number of leaders and lead changes. 10-12 cars in contention at the end. And an unheralded rookie driver taking his first career win in a car owned by two of the sport's legends. Sometimes, it just all goes your way!

Proud of My Kids

The preceding video is a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast my students have been producing the last three years. It definitely is a peek behind the curtain into the controlled chaos that is my room.

My first principal knocked me on evaluations for not having a strict policy for when kids could speak in class (such as raising hands). I have always felt there needs to be a controlled chaos to a discussion, which allows for greater creativity. Or maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think you can look at that video and tell me something productive is not going on!

Doing a NASCAR Fantasy Draft in My Class

I thought about doing this last year, but couldn't figure out how to do it without giving way too much extra credit. But with NASCAR's points system adjusted, I think I can pull it off. See the prezi I made below for details:

NASCAR Fantasy Draft on Prezi

NASCAR vs. Congress

From: Flickr, My Army Reserve

So, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, Betty McCollum, wants to bar the military from sponsoring NASCAR teams. She says that the military (and taxpayers) are wasting their money sponsoring these teams when the money could be used elsewhere.

On the face of it, I can understand where she's coming from. I remember the hue and cry when banks receiving federal bailout money were thinking about continuing their sponsorship of golf tournaments. At the core of this issue is whether advertising and sponsorship is an efficient use of money. No one complains when money is used for utility payments or rent. In fact, while I was at business school, third-year business majors questioned the effectiveness of advertising.

Apparently, marketers and advertisers aren't selling themselves well enough. There's a pretty clear connection between advertising and market share, and the makers of the energy drink AMP can tell you how their sales went up after their association with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. I have to think that if the military thought they weren't getting their money's worth, they would opt out of their contracts, right?

Besides, if she wants to really save money, how about cutting the subsidy for public broadcasting?

Her Achy Breaky Heart

Fame has ruined the lives of countless child actors: the cast of Diff'rent Strokes alone could fill a book. So, it surprises me on a couple of fronts that the father of Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray, has spoken so vehemently about the impact of Hannah Montana on his daughter.

On whether he wishes "Hannah Montana" had never happened:

"I hate to say it, but yes, I do. Yeah. I'd take it back in a second. For my family to be here and just be everybody okay, safe and sound and happy and normal, would have been fantastic. Heck, yeah. I'd erase it all in a second if I could."

From: GQ: Mr. Hannah Montana's Achy Broken Heart

1) Billy Ray was on the set working alongside his daughter. How could he not see what was going on?
2) Billy Ray had his own meteoric rise to fame in the early '90s, with his out-of-nowhere smash hit "Achy Breaky Heart." If any Hollywood parent should know how to handle sudden fame, it should be BRC.

The Coming Labor NFL Storm

From: Cinema Politica

It's not looking good for negotiations between the NFL and NFLPA, what with Jerry Richardson being compared with Darth Vader and negoiations breaking off a day early last week.

Which brings an interesting proposal by an NFL agent: cap the rookies...all rookies. Lots of attention gets paid to the top picks in the draft, who make an enormous amount of money whether they pan out or not. But maybe the author is on to something, with shorter contracts allowing for less performance-based risk.

A Discipline Policy That Works

I often compare the school I teach at to the school I went to--does anyone else do this? The two schools are very dissimilar--my alma mater boasted a 90+% rate of students that went on to four year schools, while my employer is a Title I school with a 75% graduation rate.

That graduation rate appears to me as the statistic that we base nearly all of our disciplinary (and other) decisions on. One girl at our school has been written up nearly 70 times, but is still at our school. Counselors and administrators seem to bend over backwards to get kids a diploma in June and get them out of here, no matter what they did (or failed to do).

My high school wasn't like this at all, and I'm beginning to see one of the reasons why. Besides the drastic socio-economic differences, the discipline policy has some teeth in it. In fact, the district superintendent had to spend time telling the media that the policy is not too strict. This after a 15-year-old committed suicide after he faced expulsion for an offense not publicized.

I wonder what would happen if we had a stricter discipline policy where I work. I believe that the graduation rate would go down, but the kids that were still in school would have less problems to deal with...

How NOT to do PR

Several stories in the news recently about bad publicity:

Groupon has decided to stop running the ads it debuted in the Super Bowl. One ad incorporated the plight of the Tibetans as a comedic device. Oops!

The NFL and Jerry Jones sell Super Bowl tickets to seats that aren't fire marshall-approved. Oops, again!

Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, sues a local paper and demands the firing of one of its writers after being the subject of a less than flattering profile. What was that old adage about not picking a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel?

FX Does It Right

Being a network programming chief is a tough job. Greenlight too many bad shows, and you'll quickly be shown the door. Pressure, pressure, pressure. And some networks (ABC ten years ago, NBC now) go through a rough skid of having show after show fail.

That being said, FX does an awesome job of putting great shows on the air. In the last several years, take a look at their lineup:

The Shield (my favorite show ever!)
Sons of Anarchy
Rescue Me
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Terriers (RIP!)
Archer
Lights Out
Justified (my favorite show currently on TV, premiered tonight)

Being a small cable network does have its advantages--you can target a small, dedicated audience rather than the shoot for the vast audiences the broadcast nets have to appeal to. Even so, small networks like FX have their chance to fail. FX, however, seems to have dialed in how to appeal to their audience.

No Greater Love

From: The Atlanta Journal Constitution


Wow. That about sums up this story in one word, but I have two cents to add anyway.

I asked my students today what their coaches would give to them if they really needed it. Most answers were small amounts of cash and maybe a place to live. None of them had heard the story of Wake Forest baseball coach Tom Walter and his decision to give one of his kidneys to a freshman on the team. My students couldn't comprehend this, and I'd have to say it's hard for me to wrap my brain around as well...

Great game! Everything else, meh...

From: Sports Illustrated

Remember those Super Bowls in the mid to late '80s, which were always over by halftime? We've been fortunate that the game itself has lived up to the hype for the most part over the last ten years.

Super Bowl XLV was indeed a close game, not decided until a minute to go. However, that seemed to be the only good part about Super Bowl Sunday.

FOX's pregame show--panned. Christina Aguilera's rendering of the National Anthem--wrong lyrics. Commercials--hit or miss, mostly unmemorable. The halftime show--universally panned. Fans who lost their seats because of mistakes made by the NFL and Jerry Jones--unforgivable.

I never thought I'd say this, but it would be nice for the things surrounding the game to live up to the game itself.

Disney Does It Again

From: The Beauty and the Beast On Tour blog


Last summer, my wife and I took our daughter to Disney World. It was the first time I'd been there since my early teens, and I definitely have a different perspective on Disney since getting this sports & entertainment marketing teaching gig.

The most impressive thing about Disney World to me was the consistent level of outstanding customer service. No matter what the employee or the job, they all a positive glow about them. Definitely great for brand building.

Since our trip to Disney World, our family has experienced other Disney productions all over the region: Mary Poppins on tour in Charlotte, Disney on Ice in Roanoke and, last night, Beauty and the Beast in Greensboro. Every production we've been to has had tremendous production values. Extending the Disney brand out to plays and performances away from a Disney park can be risky, but every experience we've had so far has had the level of quality I've expected from any Disney venture.

To Quit or Not to Quit

From: Andrew Hindes, North Forsyth Sports & Entertainment Marketing II student


One of the things I think that separates successful people from non-successful people is their reaction to adversity. Successful people get challenged and find a way to adapt and/or overcome that challenge. Unsuccessful people get challenged and quit.

We see this all the time at our school, to the point it's sadly become part of the school culture. Struggle in a class--quit. Don't like a coach--quit. Hate school--quit.

So it's awesome to see our basketball team play a tough game without quitting. Down by 8 with less than four minutes to go, we came back and beat our toughest conference rival. I'm excited about this because it doesn't always happen here--the readiness to quit in the classroom often extends to the athletic field here, so I'm proud to see a group of students at our school take a tough situation and grind it out to a successful conclusion. I hope it carries over to the classroom!

Smells Like Teen Spirit

From: The Pigskin Doctors

I had my students read and comment on an article about a $60M football stadium being built for a high school in Texas.

Allen High School has a student body of 5,000, with 600 of those students in the marching band. The new stadium will hold around 18,000--the school takes approximately 8,000 fans to every road game.

One of the questions I asked my students was whether they thought we could generate this kind of support for our school. Obviously, the answer was no. I wonder if we could even get 2500 people to our football games. I see a general lack of school spirit around here. I haven't heard of a study on how to generate school spirit, but we definitely are a long way from it.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Student Drops!

From: zdnet.com


Isn't it frustrating when your good kids transfer out of your class? I have a pretty rough 7th period, and my best student (academically) is now gone. Why? Because we don't talk about NASCAR enough. And this student wants to go into sports marketing.

This is the second student I've had this year that has expressed an interest in a career in sports marketing, then dropped my class. Is it something I said?!

/end of random rant

/steps off soapbox