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!