Ashley Wagner makes money with British Petroleum

This makes me sad, and makes me like Wagner a little bit less:

http://www.youtube.com/user/BPplc?v=UPOkwqwbFjA

Apologies if this is old news.

For me this seems to be Ashley's reminder for herself, more than advertisement. But maybe.

Not certain what about it makes you sad----is it their responsibility for the oil spill?

Pepe Nero said:

This makes me sad, and makes me like Wagner a little bit less:

http://www.youtube.com/user/BPplc?v=UPOkwqwbFjA

Apologies if this is old news.

Click to expand...

an addition to her already spilled and tainted reputation

Curious posts. Spilled and tainted reputation? Sad? That's confusing to me. I thought it was a nice presentation from Ashley. Didn't read anything into it.

What is wrong with you people? This girl is being profiled as one of many athletes on the US Olympic Team by one of the many sponsors of the event. She didn't say anything about BP or oil. She talked about skating and what it takes to be good. She's also two time National Champion, Grand Prix medalist twice, 5th at Worlds last year - THE reason we are send three ladies to the Olympics instead of two AND she's an outspoken champion for equal rights. In the world's most superficial and bitchy sport you picked this to bark about? WOW!

ray94611 said:

What is wrong with you people? This girl is being profiled as one of many athletes on the US Olympic Team by one of the many sponsors of the event. She didn't say anything about BP or oil. She talked about skating and what it takes to be good. She's also two time National Champion, Grand Prix medalist twice, 5th at Worlds last year - THE reason we are send three ladies to the Olympics instead of two AND she's an outspoken champion for equal rights. In the world's most superficial and bitchy sport you picked this to bark about? WOW!

Click to expand...

Exactly. BP isn't the greatest company to be sponsored by, given their history, but that oil spill incident doesn't define a skater, no more than if Coke was sponsoring a skater and we deduced that the skater isn't against the anti-gay laws.

Yeah sponsorship is a tricky thing. I remember taking pause for a minute when I first saw the BP was one of Ashley's sponsors. But unfortunately commerce and morals are two things that are increasingly difficult to hold up together, and Ashley has every right to seek out as many sponsors as she can get... that is her primary source of income.

It makes me consider how at once an athlete is extraordinarily lucky to get sponsors because it means funding for their training, AND potentially money that can then pay for their life expenses, but it also means skating becomes a job.

CanadianSkaterGuy, you make a good point. It's not like Coca-Cola is this pristine company. In fact very much the opposite. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate seeing Michelle and Evan on a can. AT&T gives me head aches almost everyday, but I don't get upset that Meryl and Charlie are in their ads now.

It's gotta be difficult when you have all these sponsors coming at you in such a small window of time. You want to be receptive to it all, and jump on everything (then again that's also a great problem to have) and especially since BP has a relationship with the US Olympic Team and other athletes are involved, I'm sure it felt like a simple and obvious choice.

And if you look past that fact that BP sponsors the spot, it's kind of a nice video for Ashley. Hey... at least we're not looking at outfits with BP and Covergirl pasted on them like a Racing Jumper.

Yup, the main message is that BP is sponsoring an athlete and helping her fulfill her dreams, even after their PR nightmare.

Pepe Nero said:

This makes me sad, and makes me like Wagner a little bit less:

http://www.youtube.com/user/BPplc?v=UPOkwqwbFjA

Apologies if this is old news.

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the vid, which obviously is recent. (Sorry, I haven't watched it yet.)

FWIW, Team BP (including Wagner) was announced several months ago. Back then we had a few posts in another GS thread discussing the announcement.
At the time, my knee-jerk reaction was a bit of regret that in this case, it's only a one-way street of the athletes making the sponsor look good (without any reciprocal prestige for the athletes). But my rational brain did realize then -- and now -- that it's a matter of "beggars can't be choosers."
I bet that most winter athletes can't afford to turn down a sponsorship, even if their values are not in perfect alignment with the source of the money.

So I don't blame Wagner for accepting BP's funding.