I do not know Tanith and frankly do not care if she is nice or not. She just seems to be trying to hard to be in front of the camera as often as possible.
An olympic silver medal should get them sponsors, not their personalities. They work hard and are infinitely talented. On top of this, they are attractive and young, qualities that are all-important to the visual ads that fashion/cosmetics companies rely on.
And, in fact, whether they are your favorite team or not, anything that gets advertisers and sponsors accustomed to paying figure skaters and ice dancers is a good thing. Your favorites will benefit by this atmosphere in all likelihood.
So, I'm interested in it being profitable for all the skaters who want to, to be able to stay in the very expensive and difficult sport of figure skating & ice dancing, for as long as they want to.
I really appreciate constructive suggestions for marketing skaters and dancers very much!
It is depressing to me that all Meryl & Charlie's agent can seem to think of for them is Public Service Announcements (which they are doing anyway - on Read Every Day, Not Using Bottled Water, and Fitness for Kids (yes, very vanilla choices).)
Last edited by dorispulaski; 03-11-2012 at 02:54 PM.
If that comes as a shock, how about this? So have Domnina and Shabalin!Originally Posted by brightphoton
So which did you like better, the 95% or the 5%?..a reporter asked if they were surprised that they won, and Davis answered very snarkily that they worked very hard, so no, it wasn't a surprise at all. The other 95% of the time they give canned, straight from PR answers.
By the way, if your corporation wants to engage Tanith Belbin as a motivational speaker, here you go:
http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/c.../Tanith-Belbin
Last edited by Mathman; 03-11-2012 at 02:36 PM.
Well. The real skating money is in Japan and South Korea now. So I would think if they are friends with Yuna or any Japanese skater, they could be on a Kose ad worldwide. See why Patrick Chan is all buddying up with Takahashi now? But yeah, the fact he is Asian does help...
Now what option do we have left...what about take a season off to go on dancing with the stars...
Meryl & Charlie have a reasonably good fan base in Japan, and Japan is Charlie's favorite place to visit, but I don't know whether Japanese advertisers would be interested in them, except perhaps as representative non-Japanese tourists or something? How often are non-Asian athletes featured in Japanese advertising?
They did 5 ice show dates in Japan last year, and were scheduled for two shows in Korea, which were postponed.
Meryl is fluent in Italian, and pretty good in French, but neither of them AFAIK, speaks Japanese or any other Asian language.
A related point is that learning to speak Russian has worked out well for Johnny Weir.
Meryl should skate with her hair down more often and their agent should be talking to Clairol, Garnier, L'Oreal, Pantene, etc.! They should make a page for their hair on their website. I kid not. If Obama's teleprompter can have a website, so can Marlie's hair.
Speaking of Marlie -- that nickname is cool and marketable in itself, but I don't know if Aunt Joyce has copyrighted it.
I'd also love to see them both on a makeover show. Not that they are in bad shape at all, but they would give a great coiffeur or fashionista such great material to work with. It would be fun. I don't know if those shows ever focus on couples, but why not?
Last edited by Spun Silver; 03-11-2012 at 03:31 PM.
This is the most important point, I agree. If any skater(s) gain publicity with the larger public, it benefits all skaters. I'd love to see the numbers on how many ballroom dancing schools have increased their revenues after Max Chmerkovsky and Derek Hough became glamorous household words.
Make-up and hair could be interesting products for Meryl to promote, but I was thinking of something less literal and direct. I think Meryl and Charlie would be most effective selling a fantasy. This is what car and perfume ads embody. You show glamorous people in sumptuous scenarios (like that perfume ad Charlize Theron is in currently), and they attract attention.
We've neglected to mention one advantage Meryl (and other ice dancers) have over a lot of singles and pairs skaters. Ice dancers don't have to be so tiny. (There are exceptions, of course; thank goodness for Alissa and Carolina Kostner!) They can be taller and older, and they look it. Meryl is young, but she looks like a woman, not a child. She doesn't look like a little girl playing dress-up when she wears a gown. She could project an interesting, mysterious, or romantic narrative if needed. And Charlie could present her expertly. It doesn't matter that they sound vanilla in interviews. As Norma Desmond said in Sunset Boulevard, "We didn't need dialogue. We had faces."
Last edited by Olympia; 03-11-2012 at 04:02 PM.
Seems like the reporter asked a silly question.... it was their 4th US championship, they've finished on the World podium multiple times, have an Olympic silver medal and have been mostly undefeated this year. Why would anyone be surprised that they won Nationals?....it would be more surprising if they hadn't won.... So, I'm not surprised about Meryl's response. They worked hard to stay at the top.
But who's buying L'oreal or Garnier or whatever just because Meryl is the model for it? Probably not a heck of a lot of people. Not when the likes of JLo, Drew Barrymore, Taylor Swift, and SJP, Emma Stone, Jessica Alba, Jessica Beil blah, blah, blah are all hawking that stuff and the public is eating it up. I think Meryl is stunning and very interesting looking and would be fantastic in cosmetics or hair products ads, but most of the public has not a clue as to who she is and would read her name underneath her ad and wind up scratching their head in confusion. They need to invest in their PR in Asia since that's where the largest fan base seems to be. Look at the Hollywood stars who do tons of ads over there that we never, ever see (nor do they want us to see really, Ben Affleck for Feria hair colour for men years ago comes to mind).
^ Well, if they can do that kind of mesmerizing drama, they should be doing it on the ice, like Klimova and Ponomarenko. If they did, we wouldn't have to talk about marketing them.
And sgrand, Drew Barrymore can't do a scratch spin or spiral with her hair floating across the ice.
Last edited by Spun Silver; 03-11-2012 at 04:07 PM.
Can't remember the name of the show, but it was the 4 gay guys who would give a guy and his apartment a makeover. Skater John Zimmeran was one of the guys on the show - they re-did his and Sylvia's apartment because they didnt' have time due to touring, gave John a makeover and taught him how to prepare a dish for a romantic dinner.
Last edited by brightphoton; 03-11-2012 at 04:19 PM.
Of course she can't, her full head of extensions would fall out lol. Hey, I'm not saying I wouldn't like to see skaters all over the place getting the endorsements they deserve, but it's really tough because skating just isn't popular here in NA. They'd be better off playing golf or tennis, maybe then the public would notice them more...
I believe it was Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I remember watching that show. Zimmerman was already engaged to Silvia, and I think he wanted to shape up for her. It was very sweet.
Spun Silver, the thought of Klimova and Ponomarenko at their peak (in about 1995) in one of those atmospheric perfume ads...be still, my heart! Can you just imagine some nocturnal scenario with Marina in a floaty gown (skating or not) and Sergei in black tie, with artful shadows and velvety music...sigh....
Yup. Not sure D/W could pull it off (although Marina is what I'm thinking of when I recommend Meryl letting her hair down). S&M would suit them better, LOL. Actually there was a team at Nats that did a pretty good S&M routine this year, at least that's how I interpreted it.
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