Endorsements by Male Skaters | Golden Skate

Endorsements by Male Skaters

attyfan

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Medalist
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Mar 1, 2004
(Inspired by a post on another thread)

There seems to be a great disparity between male and female skaters (at least American skaters) in getting endorsements. Kimmie just got some good ones (Subway; Visa; Under Armour), and I doubt if she has become a household name yet. For the men, however, there might be a few around Olys, but that is it. Why do you think this is so?
 

Tonichelle

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Jun 27, 2003
because in the US especially it's deemed a ladies sport... and so the media at large believe that because it's a women's sport more women are watching and so they're they target audience

apparently these women that watch are not seen as being attracted to the many attractive male skaters. :love: Give me Evan Lysacek over Kimmie Meissner anyday. :love:

but as I'm typing this they're showing Ben and Tanith's commercial for contacts... so I guess some male skaters get lucky ;)
 

SeaniBu

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Joined
Mar 19, 2006
because in the US especially it's deemed a ladies sport... and so the media at large believe that because it's a women's sport more women are watching and so they're they target audience

apparently these women that watch are not seen as being attracted to the many attractive male skaters. :love: Give me Evan Lysacek over Kimmie Meissner anyday. :love:

but as I'm typing this they're showing Ben and Tanith's commercial for contacts... so I guess some male skaters get lucky ;)

:agree:

Also women are not AS concerned about attractive men as men are about attractive women. I have seen many % study scales of where men are attracted first to women by looks at over a 50% margin. Where women are in the attraction to men for looks as being in the 20% margin. It is because we as men have XY and women have XX, some stating this means men have lest character importance. I don't know how to feel about those studies. ???:laugh:
 

eliza88

On the Ice
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Aug 6, 2003
If the US had a dominant male skater, there is a good chance the endorsments would come. Assume for a second that the likes of Plushenko or Yagudin were American...very marketable skaters IMO, and I think they appeal to both the sexes.

eliza88
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
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Jun 27, 2003
Were Boitano or Hamilton given a lot of endorsements in the 80s? or even early 90s? I don't remember seeing a lot of them...

But I remember seeing Kristi Yamaguchi EVERYWHERE. And Dorothy Hamill and Peggy Flemming STILL get endorsements.. where's Dick in all of this? ;)

and I don't know about studies, but sex sells on BOTH sides of the gender gap...
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
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Jun 27, 2003
no I think that the studies fail in one critical way - guys aren't ashamed to admit that's what sells... most women are ;)
 

blue dog

Trixie Schuba's biggest fan!
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Dec 16, 2006
as backwards and chauvinist as this sounds, i'd rather see someone like katarina, nancy, or any of the older skaters selling some products. seeing little girls just kinda...

to me, sex does not sell in that respect.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Blame it on Sonia Henie, her movies, her coloring book, her paper dolls, and all those new mothers at that time naming their daughters Sonja. Dick Button came 8 years later too late, and there was already much ballyhoo over Joe Dimaggio. Finally, figure skating could be called a little girl sport.

Nothing has changed that. Nothing will. Everyone wants the little girl to win.

But there is much more adverts using men than in the past nowadays, but not Evan, unfortunately,

Joe
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Todd Eldredge was the king of U.S. figure skating for many years. Does anyone remember if he got any endorsements?

A lot of skaters appear in ads for skating equipment in figure skating magazines at least.
 

iluvtodd

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Mar 5, 2004
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United-States
Todd Eldredge was the king of U.S. figure skating for many years. Does anyone remember if he got any endorsements?

A lot of skaters appear in ads for skating equipment in figure skating magazines at least.


I think around the time of the 1998 Olympics Todd may have had some kind of endorsement with Minute Maid Orange Juice. In 2002 he did a series of skating clinics with Chevy across the USA (we were lucky enough to participate in one about 15 minutes from home).
 

mememe

On the Ice
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Nov 20, 2004
Were Boitano or Hamilton given a lot of endorsements in the 80s? or even early 90s? I don't remember seeing a lot of them...

But I remember seeing Kristi Yamaguchi EVERYWHERE. And Dorothy Hamill and Peggy Flemming STILL get endorsements.. where's Dick in all of this? ;)

and I don't know about studies, but sex sells on BOTH sides of the gender gap...

I think Hamilton had some insurance company commercial during the 1988 (or was it 92?) Olympics. I seem to remember seeing him on a commercial during the Olympics. And, of course, he's had Discover Card, Target and Smuckers as sponsors of SOI, so he's worked with all those companies (wasn't he, and other SOI cast members, in a Target commerical several years ago?).

Boitano worked with Bausch & Lomb for awhile after the Olympics (not doing commercials like Yamaguchi, but he did some appearances, etc., for them and they, in turn, sponsored some of his ventures, etc). He also worked with Sudafed for awhile, and in 1992, Chrysler sponsored his Skating 92 tour and he did some work for them (there was a near-life-sized poster of Boitano and Bonnie Blair with some kids in many Chrysler dealerships hyping a program Chrysler was doing during the Olympics with kids). And Boitano did a commercial with Lawrence Taylor for Jack-in-the-Box (it only showed, I believe, in places were there were Jack-in-the-Box franchises).

But no, neither he nor Hamilton (nor Button) ever had the type of thing that the female skating stars in the U.S. have enjoyed.
 

debdelilah

On the Ice
Joined
May 6, 2006
In other sports, like the WNBA, women get paid far less than men, and also have less airtime and endorsements...there are already many sports where a similar inequality exists, except that men have the advantage. In Lysacek's article, where he was quoted about "making figure skating a male sport, or man's sport" and the differences between Kimmie's endorsements and his were highlighted, I couldn't help but think of that. Should there be no sports in which women have an advantage? By the way...I don't watch basketball or football, or any other sports but figure skating...I have a feeling that the more figure skating is made into a man's sport, the less I would want to watch it. Everything doesn't have to rotate around what appeals most to men, does it? Especially since quite a few things already do.

ETA: I'm not even sure that "masculinizing" figure skating would increase audiences--people who like theatre and performance will like that side of skating, whether straight or gay, and miss it when it's not there. My brother and his wife and I watched tapes of the Torino Olympics a few weeks ago, with neither him nor his wife being figure skating fans. He asked many questions about COP and the various penalties for pops and falls, but he wasn't just paying attention to jumps. Half of his comments were about performance.
 
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SeaniBu

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Joined
Mar 19, 2006
In Lysacek's article, where he was quoted about "making figure skating a male sport, or man's sport"
Is that really what he said (I didn't read it obviously)- i.e. anything missing from that quote? Like words that dictate the context in what he was trying to say opposed to what the comment by it's self might be construed as? That is not a very friendly comment by itself.
Everything doesn't have to rotate around what appeals most to men, does it? Especially since quite a few things already do.

:agree: :agree: :agree: Let the women dominate the popularity of it.:agree: :agree: :agree:
 

Pixie Cut

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
It's a ladies sport in the U.S. In Canada, both Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko had a lot of endorsements. I think Kurt did Coca Cola commercials and Elvis did MasterCard and McDonalds. Others that I can't think of at the moment. Of course, Brian Boitano did the famous "I'm going to Disneyland" comercial right after the '88 Olympics, but that's about it. For the person who mentioned Todd Eldredge, he did have a deal with FTD florists at one point, but that was tied to Champions on Ice.
 
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