In Response To Evan Woollacott

Your last blog entry about "Snookie" from the new hit T.V. show Jersey Shore has greatly interested me. I agree with your stance that she is an idiot and am bewildered that well respected companies would let her endorse their brand. Ultimately, when a celebrity endorses a product they now have control over the image of that particular product. From an image standpoint I am shocked that an organization would choose such an undesirable representative.

I thoroughly agree with your Charlie Sheen reference and that he has flourished while using his "bad boy" image. Every human has issues, and I think everybody enjoys watching people who have more issues than them, and make themselves feel better. Ultimately, any publicity is good publicity. I believe this is why organizations are turning towards using these stars who attract so much attention, regardless if it is positive or negative.

Some stars have different standards though. For example, Charlie Sheen is an actor, and his true character is rarely seen by the public, therefore the public associate him with his characters that he plays on television. His true character, although rarely seen in person, is known by the public. But ultimately is irrelevant because peoples views are tainted by his alter ego. Ndamukong Suh, who is a defensively lineman for the Detroit Lions, was a representative for the Chrysler motor company and was featured on many commercials this past summer. He had some hardships on the field this fall, and was tainted as a dirty player. I then noticed I no longer saw him in Chrysler commercials. They terminated him from their commercials because he was now known as a dirty player. The public view him by his actions on the field, and not how he truly is in real life. When in fact he is a very soft spoken person and very kind in real life. But, his image is forever changed to to his actions on the field. This is ultimately what has propelled Sheen's career, but has squashed his. This is a poor double standard, but is the sad reality of the "advertising" world that we live in.

How the public views you in relation to what you do has a huge impact on your marketability. In Suh's case, he is drowning, in Sheen's, he is flourishing. I end this blog entry with this question, Is any publicity truly good publicity? Regardless of it's nature?