Pubdate: Tue, 7 Jul 2009
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Section: Business
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Website: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Dan Neil
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Michael+Phelps

MICHAEL PHELPS ADS PROVE A NEW CULTURAL TOLERANCE OF MARIJUANA

Super-swimmer Michael Phelps returned to big-time advertising Sunday 
with a TV spot for Subway titled "Be Yourself." Oh, the irony.

Surely Phelps -- 14-time Olympic gold medalist and endorsement 
juggernaut -- was being only himself, only human, when he was 
photographed in November hitting a bong at a party at the University 
of South Carolina. That photograph, first published by the British 
tabloid News of the World in January, resulted in a three-month 
competition ban and cost Phelps a reported $500,000 deal with 
Kellogg. The swimmer promptly issued a sniveling apology, copping to 
"regrettable," "inappropriate" and "youthful" behavior (doesn't the 
latter want to excuse the former?). Phelps, 24, has more or less 
cheerfully dined on PR ashes ever since, in interviews with Matt 
Lauer, among others.

Interestingly, the apology from the world's fittest stoner infuriated 
proponents of legal weed, who saw the episode as a missed opportunity 
to advance the cause. After all, if Aqua-Man smokes bud, how bad can it be?

This is the greatest Olympian of all time, a man chandeliered with 
gold medals on the cover of Sports Illustrated. His achievements mock 
the moral hysteria that traditionally rains down on marijuana.

The Subway ad itself is nothing special. It's a compare-and-contrast 
between Phelps' glamorous life as a sports superstar and that of 
Jared Fogle, Subway's former-fatty mascot. Jared prefers the low-fat 
sweet-onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich, while metabolic dynamo Phelps 
dares to eat the foot-long Meatball Marinara with Jalapeno, 
containing 1,060 calories and more than 3,000 milligrams of sodium.

Eating these will not make you an Olympic swimmer. A floating island, maybe.

Culture deconstructionists will pick the spot apart for oblique 
references to the scandal. Phelps' chin whiskers are kind of bro-ish, 
for instance. He does look a trifle baked (could be the chlorine). 
AdWeek's Eleftheria Parpis wrote that "you can almost hear all the 
blunts lighting up in support as Sly & The Family Stone's 'Thank You 
(Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)' kicks in."

And it really is too bad that the sandwich franchise's website is 
subwayfreshbuzz.com.

Even so, the Phelps-bong scandal seems to have been safely put to 
bed, and now that it has, it's worth asking, what have we learned? 
The consequences to Phelps -- actually, the lack of consequences -- 
suggest that something bigger than mere endorsement dollars is in 
play. It seems Phelps has moved the weed needle.

Yes, USA Swimming, the sport's national governing body, suspended 
Phelps for three months, time he used to whip himself into shape 
after his post-Olympic bacchanal. (The organization also withheld its 
monthly stipend, an amount that probably wouldn't put gas in Phelps' Bentley.)

Yes, Kellogg declined to re-up with Phelps, but tellingly, other 
endorsement deals remained intact: Speedo, Omega, Subway and Mazda 
China. Subway didn't hesitate to stand by its man (though it did 
postpone the current ad campaign six months to let the agita die 
down). Mazda required Phelps to record a minute-long mea culpa 
directed at the people of China -- mortifying but harmless. In June, 
Phelps inked a deal with H2O Audio, maker of high-end waterproof headphones.

In other words, there were no serious consequences. To the extent 
that endorsement opportunities are a rough metric of how well someone 
in public life is liked, admired, respected, the 
bong-heard-round-the-world scandal might as well never have happened. 
With the benefit of hindsight, Kellogg execs might well be kicking themselves.

You could ascribe the missing fallout to Phelps' incredible personal 
magnetism or -- far more likely -- to the fact that advertisers saw 
little downside to being associated with bong-meister Phelps.

Nor should they. Across the board, marijuana is being steadily 
decriminalized and de-stigmatized. In a Field Poll in May, 56% of 
Californians favored legalization, slightly ahead of the roughly half 
of Americans who favor such a move. Thirteen states have legalized 
medical marijuana, and three more are considering it. In a dozen 
states, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is not illegal. 
One hundred million Americans have smoked pot, and about 14 million 
use it regularly, according to federal government studies. U.S. Atty. 
Gen. Eric Holder has said the federal government would no longer raid 
California medical marijuana dispensaries.

Ethan Nadelmann, of the legalization-advocacy group Drug Policy 
Alliance, told the Associated Press last month: "This is the first 
time I feel like the wind is at my back and not in my face."

I'm sure, given the choice, Phelps would prefer not to be a milestone 
on the road to the marijuana's mainstreaming. Still, what we're 
witnessing is the death of a certain kind of shame.

Advertising -- and that's what celebrity-athlete endorsements are -- 
is a highly sensitive antenna of culture. Because it strives to 
reach, hold and please the greatest number of people, it represents a 
special threshold of cultural acceptance, the floorboards of the 
norm. The return of brand Phelps says more about us than it does about him.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake