3 ms·

I'm not sure it's reasonable to put blame on celebrities (athletes or otherwise) for hawking crappy things. A lot of the things people spend "more" on are medio

I'm not sure it's reasonable to put blame on celebrities (athletes or otherwise) for hawking crappy things. A lot of the things people spend "more" on are mediocre product, excellent branding (Apple, Gucci, Range Rover, the list goes on). A celebrity endorsement is just more of the same - branding. And I appreciate your diplomacy (seriously), but a lot of athletes have their intelligence underestimated because they are minorities and only went to college for one or two years...but mostly because they are minorities. The notion that someone young and African-American who can jump out of the gym might also be really smart is not something that's common to consider unfortunately.

tmpz22 7y ago
My wording could've been much better, for me its less about condemning celebrity endorsements but taming various tech and consumer fetishes which I ultimately deem as harmful to society. For example, investing in start-ups is good but raising gluttonous amounts of money with a terrible product or business plan is bad. If we have a bunch of articles glorifying industry outsiders parking their money here, it will raise a reciprocal amount of Uber and dollar shave club clones which take away from "more-worthy" projects.
lonelappde 7y ago
There's a difference between "paying a lot more for the same thing" (soda with a pretty label) and "paying a lot more for a better thing but maybe not worth it to me because I'm not rich enough and my limited moneyy pays for more important things" as in the examples above.
- goatherders 7y ago
  Are there a lot of sodas that cost 2 or 3x as much as an alternate, not pretty packaged soda?
  - tmpz22 7y ago
    Red Bull counts I think, basically just soda with Taurine and a bit of caffeine sprinkled in. Those things are nearly $5 a can.
    - clairity 7y ago
      a little grocery hack for that: you can get a 10-pack of bacchus-d, the korean precursor to red bull, for about $5-7 at asian stores. the bottles are small but they pack a similar punch.
alharith 7y ago
> but mostly because they are minorities. I don't think this is true for the majority of Americans anymore in regards to sports athletes. My finger on the rather sensitive topic is it has more to do with how different groups perceive one's culture (and potential ignorance thereof) than race. You'll be hard press to find, save the few rare 0.1% fringe racists or trolls, questions around Russell Wilson's intelligence, or Patrick Mahomes, or Kobe Bryant, or Richard Sherman. If you simply google "smartest athletes" you get a pretty diverse representation of African American athletes, White athletes, and everything in between. Also working against famous athletes, is the fact that pop culture and celebrity is generally not associated with intelligence in America on a whole.
- goatherders 7y ago
  I appreciate very much that that is your point of view. I sincerely HOPE we live in a world where men and women can be well-compensated athletes AND be intelligent, regardless of race.I think you make a great point about pop culture/celebrity.

tmpz22 7y ago

My wording could've been much better, for me its less about condemning celebrity endorsements but taming various tech and consumer fetishes which I ultimately deem as harmful to society. For example, investing in start-ups is good but raising gluttonous amounts of money with a terrible product or business plan is bad. If we have a bunch of articles glorifying industry outsiders parking their money here, it will raise a reciprocal amount of Uber and dollar shave club clones which take away from "more-worthy" projects.

lonelappde 7y ago

There's a difference between "paying a lot more for the same thing" (soda with a pretty label) and "paying a lot more for a better thing but maybe not worth it to me because I'm not rich enough and my limited moneyy pays for more important things" as in the examples above.

goatherders 7y ago
Are there a lot of sodas that cost 2 or 3x as much as an alternate, not pretty packaged soda?
- tmpz22 7y ago
  Red Bull counts I think, basically just soda with Taurine and a bit of caffeine sprinkled in. Those things are nearly $5 a can.
  - clairity 7y ago
    a little grocery hack for that: you can get a 10-pack of bacchus-d, the korean precursor to red bull, for about $5-7 at asian stores. the bottles are small but they pack a similar punch.

alharith 7y ago

> but mostly because they are minorities. I don't think this is true for the majority of Americans anymore in regards to sports athletes. My finger on the rather sensitive topic is it has more to do with how different groups perceive one's culture (and potential ignorance thereof) than race. You'll be hard press to find, save the few rare 0.1% fringe racists or trolls, questions around Russell Wilson's intelligence, or Patrick Mahomes, or Kobe Bryant, or Richard Sherman. If you simply google "smartest athletes" you get a pretty diverse representation of African American athletes, White athletes, and everything in between. Also working against famous athletes, is the fact that pop culture and celebrity is generally not associated with intelligence in America on a whole.

goatherders 7y ago
I appreciate very much that that is your point of view. I sincerely HOPE we live in a world where men and women can be well-compensated athletes AND be intelligent, regardless of race.I think you make a great point about pop culture/celebrity.