metinking

Turning Lightning to Gold

The gold days of this past August Olympics are fading like the leaves of Autumn.
My attention now turns to football, yes American football. As I watch the titanic battle between the Colts and Steelers, that commercial poked me in the eyes yet again.

It was AT&T’s new commercial promoting their 3G service.  A sprinter donning a blue outfit burst down the track, while performing some communication functions, his legs moving at lightning speed.
I had to wonder out aloud.  Why is some generic guy in this commercial while Usain Bolt, a the world’s fastest man with a world conquering personality not in this commercial?
Why was our star not doing his signature streak and promoting this service?
I  had it!  I opened up the laptop, and logged unto my AT&T account, and penned a message of inquiry about Bolt. Call it consumer provincialism.

The two  superstars of the Olympics were Bolt and Phelps.
So, while I was still online, I decided to do a quick check how Phelps was doing in the post Olympic gold race.
Well, he is on his way to having each gold medal being translated into say $10M. To add salt to my wounded spirit, one story recorded that Phelps had signed an endorsement contract with AT&T!

http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=42c17bb8-ff2a-4751-a380-bba098fcd606

A similar search for our sports Obama, Bolt  yielded no such gold laden stories.  The Jamaican Star hinted at a possibility with this headline British internet giant wants Bolt?
My covetous self reminded me of Sports illustrated  full cover picture of  a well adorned Phelps, while Bolt received a thumb size picture smaller than the S in Sports. The October 20 edition of SI carried the Jamaica Homecoming story.  There is mention of ten (10) scholarship offers in the US, but no mention of endorsements. Whoppie!
An abstract of the Sport Illustrated Story is found in the link below:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/2008/08/16/aitcheson.100/index.html

I am a post racial guy, so should I chalk this up to naked nationalism?
Maybe you have more details on any endorsement windfall of either Bolt or Fraiser. My response from AT&T has been I got the wrong department. What was I thinking! O well, share your thoughts!

About the author

metinking

I am an entrepreneur whose focus is on helping small businesses deploy internet marketing tools to leverage new customers and profits. I believe in the survival of the knitted, and thus champion those who are making a difference in our community.