Sex sells: The women's game

Discussion in 'Women's Fans and More' started by Surf Coach, May 23, 2011.

  1. kolabear

    kolabear Member+

    Nov 10, 2006
    los angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The sumo wrestler, I don't know. But some of those athletes (like Tasha)?

    Sexy.

    Why do I suddenly feel like I've been transported to a Puritan land?!

    :)
     
  2. Bonnie Lass

    Bonnie Lass Moderator
    Staff Member

    Lyon
    Norway
    Oct 20, 2000
    Up top
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Q & A: Media Coverage of Women's Sports

    Q6. In terms of advertising, sexy images of women appear to work. They sell products. So this must be what the consumer wants to see. They wouldn't do it if it didn't make money.
    A6. This position reveals a remarkable insensitivity to the harmful effects of sexist stereotyping. The advertising or sports media should not perpetuate harmful, limiting images toward any group of individuals. Saying, “This is what the audience wants” and, “This is what sells” would not be tolerated if the images perpetuated racist or anti-semitic stereotypes. The position should not be tolerated if the images perpetuate the stereotype of women as sex objects.
     
  3. Bonnie Lass

    Bonnie Lass Moderator
    Staff Member

    Lyon
    Norway
    Oct 20, 2000
    Up top
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Here's a fun story for everyone:

    Almost a year ago, it was decided that BS would do away with all of their 'sexy women' threads. The 'Hottest Women's Player' thread included. Because Google images would pull up a TON of T&A photos that linked back to BS. And the BS advertisers were not happy with that at all. So, they all disappeared.

    Except for the 'Hottest men's player' thread in the USMNT forum. Apparently, we could have sexy photos of male players, but not of women's players. Oh, I was pissed. I fought tooth and nail to get that thread back, even if it meant no more 'barely there' photos.

    That thread doesn't just show the stereotypical pretty straight girls in street clothes and bikinis. Yes, they're in there too. But they also show a lot of sweaty, no-makeup women with muscles and bad hair. Not exactly your standard SI or Playboy material. It's diverse, and in a way, kind of cool that men and women -- gay and straight -- can sit around and post photos of players they admire. Sometimes you wonder what the HELL someone sees in Player-X, other times you agree, or discover a new player you haven't seen or heard of before.

    And the beauty of that thread is that no one is telling us what attractive is. There isn't any one image or player being shoved down our throats on every news article or video highlight. We -- the fans -- get to choose.

    No, you've been transported to the land of women's soccer fans. Males and females alike. You've just witnessed why 'sex sells' is such a polarizing issue and why it needs so much thought and debate. Especially since the only issue/request you seem to have is, more or less, 'More pretty pictures please.' Such a simple request. And yet, there's pages upon pages of debate.

    So, let me ask you this: Who gets to decide what photos and/or players are attractive?

    Instead of relying on 'sex sells,' why not do a little research and create a new approach entirely? I mean, how much does WPS -- or any women's league -- really and truly know about their demographic? Because from Germany to Norway to Sweden to the U.S., I see roughly the same demographics at matches in each and every country, but no one seems to know how to target them.

    'Sex sells' is just such a lazy marketing tactic. You'd think someone, somewhere would be able to find some way to attract more fans that doesn't insult the ones they have.
     
  4. kool-aide

    kool-aide Member+

    Feb 1, 2002
    a van by the river
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Because you're missing the nuance? There's more to images of the human body (however clad) than (potential) sexual attraction. There's more to appreciation of the human body than sexual attraction.

    And you're missing that comodification of the human body in American society is HIGHLY problematic.

    And I've (mostly) enjoyed reading this thread a whole h3ll of a lot more than I thought I would. My expectations for this thread was very, very low. Thanks for (generally) stepping up.
     
  5. WPS_Movement

    WPS_Movement Member+

    Apr 9, 2008


    ATTENTION:
    I found the link to the high-resolution photos.
    Only click the link below, if you want to see them.
    That's your choice. You have been warned, "graphic images".

    Warning: The images in the link below are provacative in nature. Depending on your desires, they will either offend you, or make you c*eam your computer screen. Do not open the link below while you're at work. Only open the link when you're alone, if you do choose to open the link at all. Make sure to look both ways (to ensure you're alone) before you unzip, if you choose to go that route. This is a real hormone popper if you like to stare at this kind of stuff.
    German U-20 national team - females (all are adults).

    WARNING: Link does contain nudity (open at your own discretion)

    LINK:
    [/URL]
    (photos in this link are high-resolution, once you click on the photos)

    Selina Wagner, Julia Simic, Annika Doppler, Kristina Gessat, and Ivana Rudelic, in HEAVEN.
     
  6. Flea2009

    Flea2009 Member

    Dec 6, 2009
    Kirkcaldy
    Nat'l Team:
    Ireland Republic
    I am not sure if you are being clever with this post showing us where the average sex obsessed person is likely to find sexualized pictures of women athletes or whether you really think it is okay to post a link to a porn portal in a discussion of using sex to sell female sport.
     
    1 person likes this.
  7. kolabear

    kolabear Member+

    Nov 10, 2006
    los angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm only trying to make this place feel safe for people who lack a degree in Feminist or Gender Studies... :)

    Technically I don't think I'm guilty of a strawman. Deliberate exaggeration (meant to be seen as such) is not the same as basing an entire argument on an extreme premise. But I dunno... maybe...

    The thing too is, I don't know how far off my exaggeration is -- in this thread and others, my suggestion to use "pretty pictures" has met with a slew of objections. Such as:

    • Game action shots are more relevant
    • A player (Hope Solo in an example) wasn't featured prominently enough in the story to warrant a picture (My response: "Fine. Show the Commish, too")
    • I must be obsessed with Hope Solo to keep suggesting the use of photos of her. (now if I kept pushing for inclusion of Christen Press, that would be another thing, but Hope Solo is one of the "faces" of WPS and the US national team)
    • "Who's to decide anyway" what constitutes a pretty picture? So, (A) no one can decide what's a pretty picture. (B) if we think it's a pretty picture, someone else thinks it isn't. So (C) we can't use it. Or we can only use it at random, like picking it out of a hat. Which give us something like (D). with apologies to Jocasta who finds Cerebral Delight in it down in Rivalry.

    [​IMG]

    And I haven't even started with the feminist doctrine issues which I can't quickly summarize - about "sexualizing women" or "portraying them as sex objects" (Well, I guess I did just start...)
     
  8. Bonnie Lass

    Bonnie Lass Moderator
    Staff Member

    Lyon
    Norway
    Oct 20, 2000
    Up top
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    If you don't want to debate it, then why are you still here?

    Because all I'm finding thus far is you pointing out the arguments and ... yeah, that's pretty much it.
     
  9. Bonnie Lass

    Bonnie Lass Moderator
    Staff Member

    Lyon
    Norway
    Oct 20, 2000
    Up top
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nope. It goes straight to a porn site. If you'd rather, you can have people PM you for the link.

    I'm going to post a thread later in the day to outline what is OK and what is not OK in posting links to the German player in Playboy.
     
  10. Mosan

    Mosan Member

    Apr 29, 2009
    Munich
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Mhh. Key observation here. While I don`t like the generalization that the industry uses "sex sells" because it actually (always) sells I find this aspect interesting. There are studies (sadly I don`t have links anymore :( ) which clearly show how tons of advertisement money were spend in the big leagues without much of a return while womens sports are offering at the very least a platform for accentuated commercials. There are probably more prolific women (teams) active than realized (more accurate: trusted) by the media/advertisement industry. Imo very sloppy, anachronistic work by the professionals considering socio-demographic numbers. In the end it is up to the women in general to push their agenda (desires/spend "their" money) because most men are either too scared or too lazy to make up their mind. When it comes to money it is still a very, very lopsided world.
     
  11. Batfink

    Batfink Member+

    May 23, 2010
    Attilan
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Bingo! I always hear the lazy sex sells answer from people who neglect to acknowledge the type of audience watching at home or in the stands. The "sex sells" contingent may well doubt the potential of women's football, but these doubters utilise their personal misunderstanding or dislike for the game, in assessing how it could be more successful.

    Why are these people aloud to decide or voice concerns on the direction of a potentially large but relatively niche sports culture? It's the equivalent of the early X-Games scene using local law enforcement agencies to promote it's competition and events, hoping to attract the correct customers and potential sponsors for it's future growth :confused:.

    Why pander to a large group within society who will always have little to no interest in the serious nature of what you do. Being told to endlessly covert the backing of the so called mainstream "real sports fan" through sexy imagery is only good for the many doubters, who will always do everything in their power to hate.

    Attempting to convert the wannabe alpha males is a stupid lost cause. It's almost self deprecating. Those guys are always going to be the minority if they decide to ever watch and asses women's game fairly, either at home, or live.

    Well for your lack of wanting to think too hard, your preoccupation with how to present soccer players to the largely NFL, NBA, NHL, obsessed American audience, if not a new topic is a very divisive one.

    Culturally admired qualities in the traditional U.S. sporting landscape of size, power, with emphasis on the individual, don't necessarily lend themselves to soccer. They tend to be traits not as relevant or visible within the make up of a footballer. Outsiders will claim this makes soccer weak, with soccer's imagery showing a different side to the athletic male form.

    While on the men's side the U.S. fan has to deal with the wider cultural preconception of what's considered athletic, issues that involve the games female players are to do with being sexualised in order to be relevant. It's a pretty big leap between ideas of what's athletic, and ideas on just being relevant.

    As Bonnie Lass mentions though, what is pretty, and in what context is it actually useful or important to the women's game?. In sports, one person's beauty is another's persons beast. So is a pretty picture really going to open the doors of genuine interest, when notion of a female athlete is still so undeveloped.

    It's unrealistic to expect female soccer players to look like pin up models. It's hopeful to expect them to take great game photo's whilst in the heat of battle, and silly to use posed or unrelated stock images too. So why should the girls attempt to appeal to an audience of people that dislike them for just even attempting to play the game in the first place?

    Cries of how good the WTA are at finding a balance in how it's used players sex appeal to attract fans is bogus for me too. It's had a major head start as a pro sport over women's soccer, resulting in media time that women's soccer still finds illusive. Yet for all it's progress over the years, the WTA is probably where the women's major club competitions will be in another 10 to 15 years, while being no more developed or larger than youth and senior WWC's right now.
     
  12. Mosan

    Mosan Member

    Apr 29, 2009
    Munich
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Yep. Ironically enough it will be up to women (with money and/or power) how fast that step is taking progress.
     
  13. jocasta

    jocasta Member+

    Oct 11, 2003
    Nat'l Team:
    Sweden
    Sex sells what? And to whom? The foundation of the thread seems to advocate using sexy imagery of specific players to sell just about anything (presumably, preferably things that the sponsors sell) to male 'sports fans', and specifically to attract that demographic to the league and the sport.

    Frankly I suspect he just wants to see more pictures of the players he mentioned. And that's okay: who wouldn't want to see more pictures of the people they admire? I have no education in marketing, but my naive understanding is that the logic is this: if you admire a person enough, maybe you will purchase pictures of that person. (And maybe you will even purchase other things, things that they say or imply that they like.)

    At the end of they day, that issue of Playboy with the German players has one and only purpose: to sell Playboy. Not to sell the game. Which is why that post, the one that Flea2009 called out, was so inappropriate for this discussion. On the other hand, I have not read the article that goes with the pictures, so I don't know if they do any indirect advertising by saying something like "If you liked our photo shoot, come to a match, you'll like that even more."

    No apology necessary, but your aim is a little off in invoking that conversation here. For one thing I don't need to be sold. I already like the game, and I already spend my limited resources on it. I am not the target being discussed here.

    Agree with this (with, sorry Batfink, a little bit of a giggle at a rather unfortunate typo). As that legendary bard Bruce Willis put it, "If you don't respect yourself, ain't nobody gonna give a good ca-hoot..."
     
  14. kool-aide

    kool-aide Member+

    Feb 1, 2002
    a van by the river
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Grits for the mill:

    Based on twitter posts, the ND head coach seems to think you can't market women's players w/ shaved heads & tattoos. Now, perhaps his comments need more context than twitter provides. Perhaps he's just saying that w/in the current marketing concepts for women soccer players that shaved heads & tattoos aren't marketable. Perhaps he's wrong and/or constrained by total acceptance of old school American societal "norms" for female attractiveness and what sort of female forms are more easily commodified for the male gaze and objectification. But if he's willing to say that out loud and in public, well, that's a problem for me. And I don't have any tattoos or piercings (not even ears). Nor a shaved head.

    Then again, while I've respected the success ND soccer has had over the years & respect a large number of former ND players, I'm not a really a fan of Waldrum or the way he handles himself (especially in defeat--which, imo, is one of the places where a person reveals their true character).

    If Waldrum were to be a USWNT coach, I've some around here have thrown his name out as a potential coach, do you really think USWNT players or potential USWNT players wouldn't feel pressure to conform to his sense of marketability (even if he's not the one designing the marketing campaigns)?
     
  15. kolabear

    kolabear Member+

    Nov 10, 2006
    los angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Maybe it's a generational thing. I'm older than most of you other boys and girls here. For me and (I believe) my generation, the phrase "Sex sells" is not nearly so literal as most of you make it out to be.

    It means something as simple as using a handsome or pretty model in an ad; they don't have to be doing anything particularly risque. It's hiring someone deemed handsome or pretty as a news anchor.

    As far as the original post and how it's meant there, I think it's open to a broad interpretation, probably as it should be - from "news anchor" to something more overt, like Ronaldo or Beckham modeling underwear.

    Concomitant with (or together with) this very loose notion of "sex sells" is the general marketing belief that both men and women generally prefer to see, listen to, or admire men and women that they find attractive - even of their own sex and regardless of whether they're straight or gay. This was mentioned once or twice early in the thread and didn't seem to meet with much objection.

    Also comcomitant with (or together with) this loose notion of "sex sells" is the idea that it just grabs attention. Take the German Playboy issue for example. It isn't something I would push for but it gets attention and in doing so let's people know there is a World Cup about to go on. Huffington Post for example hadn't had an article on it for weeks (since the USA announced its roster) but now it does. One of the problems WPS has is that, with a limited marketing budget, a lot of people aren't even aware of it. Or if they were, momentarily, they forgot about it -- that's why effective advertising often follows the principle of saturation -- the message needs to be repeated because people forget, they're overloaded with their own lives and other messages. (Another aspect behind the saying, The only bad publicity is no publicity.)

     
  16. kool-aide

    kool-aide Member+

    Feb 1, 2002
    a van by the river
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Except you're wrong. And in fact point out the wrong-ness of your first paragraph in your second. That "simple" definition in your 2nd section is, in fact, using sex (ie "pretty people") to sell products.

    Sex sells doesn't have to mean "naked/semi-naked pictures" or "women in risque positions" and it usually does not mean that. You're the one being overly literal by not recognizing that point. "Sex sells" is exactly what we're saying -- "pretty" (as defined by a set of highly problematic societal norms) people being used to sell something -- be it cars, local news broadcasts (which are really trying to sell advert time), or (for you) women's soccer.

    Let's look at another aspect of the problem of what is considered "attractive" or "selling" women's soccer via "pretty" pics of players. It is only *very* recently (w/in maybe the last year or so) that you'd see African-American women in mainstream ads that wear their hair "natural." Right now, I can't think of an ad that shows a black woman w/ braids (w/ or w/o long extensions). Would you not use pics of players like Wilson who wear braids because of very flawed views of what constitutes beauty for African-American women? The majority of black women in ads (prior to the recent shift) have hair that is straight (ie like white people's hair) due to chemical treatments. Do you think there should be (even more) pressure (spoken or unspoken) on African-American players to alter their hair just to conform to white beauty standards? But if a player is only going to be highlighted because of physical features, then that's highly possible.
     
  17. kolabear

    kolabear Member+

    Nov 10, 2006
    los angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Oh, as long as we all recognize that "sex sells" usually " does not mean that" (naked/semi-naked/risque), then good, there's at least some agreement in the discussion and I misunderstood some other people who seemed to me to think that the issue was about more overtly sexual images -- along the lines of Playboy for example.

    I am NOT being overly literal and I DO recognize the point -- but I could've been wrong in thinking others were (that is, overly literal)...
     
  18. Batfink

    Batfink Member+

    May 23, 2010
    Attilan
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    LOL, assess women's asses :eek: . Must have had Melissa Wiik on the brain ;)

    Shaved heads and tattoos seems to be the norm in modern sports, both male and female. I don't know anything about this college soccer coach, but he's in living within the cocoon of the NCAA. Is he a good judge for the needs and practices of the women's game in the future?

    I'm no feminist, but I can't stand bullsh*t. Women's football globally seems to be a target for a lot of the bullsh*t we think no longer exists.

    Every four years Playboy and their kin come out of the woodwork targeting female soccer players to exploit, all for reasons that have nothing seriously to do with reflecting a positive vibe on the tournament about to take place. Only the lucky elite within the game get decent money from legitimate sources of media sponsorship, leaving ample room for companies like Playboy to strike while the female athlete subject is hot.

    For me, I can't blame the few girls who take the bait, as it only highlights just how socially and morally aware the majority of girls who don't get involved really are. It should be more of a surprise we don't actually see things like the recent German Playboy happen more often. We all know it's one thing to strip for Armani or another couture fashion label, versus a soft porn outlet :rolleyes:.

    Baiting low income athletes with potentially significant financial gains, for doing things that can damage their sport and career, is a very low tactic. A purposely divisive tactic, that actually does little for Playboy sales when compared to sales figures when using it's professional models. In my view it's just to make uninformed men feel comfortable with a ridiculously natured propaganda driven threat, of female encroachment on the sacred male territory called football.

    Leaving the extreme nature topic of Playboy behind, grabbing attention with cheap tricks is not the same as keeping it. Good marketing is an art even the very top companies can't always get right. Just look at difference between something like Apple versus Microsoft.

    Even though WPS may need tweaking, women's soccer globally actually has healthy growth. Grabbing attention with cheap bland/apathetic use of sex appeal, won't speed up where the game will eventually get too all in it's own natural course and time. The fact you now have more articles on the women's game, should take precedent over who the pretty face in the picture can potentially attract.

    Mainstream articles on the women's game go from lazy debates on sex appeal and lack of mainstream interest, to serious questions of where it goes next. The games culture with who, and how it's discussed, versus if, where, and when it's displayed, are still very new to a lot of people.

    The WTA did great things for women's sports back in the day. However without using the tactics involved within the much older professional WTA, women's soccer will eventually eclipse every other female sport on the planet at all levels.

    Using the tactics it has up until now, women's tennis is as near to it's saturation point as it's going to get. This should bode well for future women's soccer, as it's already achieved great things without the superficial feminine touches of tennis, while still mainly played as an amateur sport.
     
  19. wallacegrommit

    Sep 19, 2005
    This is exactly right. The media is a business trying to promote itself. The reason sports media puts the spotlight on a Jennie Finch, Lyndsey Vonn, Danica Patrick or even Hope Solo isn't because the media has a vested interest in promoting their respective women's sports, it is because the media has a vested interest in their own viewership and advertising money. The 99 WWC was a great story for the media. It was a completely media frenzy. But people mistook the feverish media attention for actual fans. When the story played its course and the media had its iconic moment with Brandi ripping her shirt off the party was over and people moved on. It was like the end of the Truman Show where Truman escapes and everyone watching on TV just changes the channel to find something else to watch.

    Sports media outlets don't use sex appeal to attract male fans to men's sports. They use sex appeal, because male fans are already sports fans and the outlet needs to compete against other media providers to attract the men as customers. This is why Sports Illustrated has a swimsuit issue. In doing so, the sports media is not trying to change societal habits or stereotypes. They are just reinforcing the existing, conventional stereotype. Since this stereotype is one of the reasons men don't watch women's sports, there is a big limit to the effectiveness of using sex appeal to market women's sports. It would be like trying to use sex appeal to get men to go to the symphony, ballet or opera.

    If you really want to get serious about trying to sell women's soccer to men, I think you have to look for analogies more to something like how advertisers sell body wash to men.

    This is probably a topic for a different thread, but I wonder if this will happen or if it even is a desirable thing. I'll watch almost any sport and enjoy a wide range of different women's sports. Obviously, soccer is so popular, women's soccer has an advantage in one sense, but it may also be a disadvantage for many of the same reasons we have been discussing in this thread. A big reason I think women's soccer has potential in the U.S. is that soccer has historically been less popular as a spectator sport. When you are winning over new fans who didn't watch soccer before, I think it is easier to get them to watch women's soccer, because by definition they are already trying something new.

    One thing I like about women's sports is there is more of a level field in terms of diversity of interest, it isn't dominated by a few main sports to the exclusion of others (like American football, basketball and baseball in the U.S.) If the best female athletes started giving up playing other sports because they all wanted to be pro soccer players, I don't know how I would feel about that. There are both pros and cons to there not being as much money in women's pro sports today. If we get to a day where WPS is like the NFL and players are using banned performance enhancing drugs and going to jail and rehab and there is a league lockout because they can't agree with the owners about how to divide to divide the billions of dollars in TV revenue, I guess it would be good to see the sport reach the big time, but I would have to tell my great grandkids about the "good old days" when fans had to walk uphill in the snow to get to the games and sometimes the 2nd half of the game would get cancelled, because the team couldn't make payroll and suddenly folded, so everyone had to walk back uphill to their cars and go home.
     
  20. AMBreakers

    AMBreakers Member

    Boston Breakers, Boston Univ. Women's Soccer, Norwich City, Charleston Battery
    Jun 21, 2010
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Boston Breakers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    For what it's worth...

    I wouldn't pay over 100 dollars for Boston Breakers season tickets just to see attractive women. There's plenty of other places I could do that for much less. I pay to see women play soccer, and find the players to be sexually attractive because of what they do. The ideas of coming to a women's game to watch the soccer and coming because sex sells are not mutually exclusive...you can market both at the same time.

    You have to advertise the female athlete, not the attractive woman who happens to be an athlete, in order to get men interested in the women's game. This might start with pointing out elements of the women's game that make it more enjoyable to watch than men's soccer- the lack of constant diving and faking injuries which makes the game flow better, the fact that the athletes play for the love of the game and don't make huge salaries, etc. If these become the focus points for marketing women's soccer then men will begin to see the women's game as attractive, which is the missing piece of the puzzle. Most men are uncomfortable with the idea of women playing sports which they see as masculine, in which case it's irrelevant to them whether the athletes are sexually attractive or not. Getting past this barrier is the key....if men begin to respect the women's game then sex sells will take care of itself.

    There are plenty of women out there who don't play soccer and are just as attractive as a Hope Solo or a Heather Mitts. Men have to be interested specifically in the female athlete and recognize the appeal of women's soccer as a sport in order for sex sells to work as a bonus. If men see the players as sexually attractive in the context of their athletics, then who needs porn?

    Hopefully Germany 2011 will get things going in the right direction with a national TV audience on ESPN and we can recapture some of the positive vibes towards women's soccer which happened in 1999!
     
    2 people repped this.
  21. DeigoRedD

    DeigoRedD Moderator
    Staff Member

    Aug 28, 2004
    Fort Worth, TX
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I've been trying to figure out where to chime in on this for quite some time. It's an interesting debate.

    I've no problem with potraying the players in a manner that shows their strength and captures a bit of their personalities. Wouldn't ever want to see them in Fredricks of Hollywood gear posing like a rap video vixen.

    It became clear to me today that it can be done in a manner that appeals to both my sensibilites as a woman who loves the game of soccer and to the more basic insticts of men.

    I work in the office of a warehouse here in TX and today on my break, I was catching up on my twitter feed and watching the Mav's parade in the lunch room. I cracked up at Tiffany Weimer's tweet about Vancouver.

    [​IMG]

    I read it to one of the guys also in there and he asked about the pic. I told him it was an ad that the team she plays for made before their first home game of the season and showed him the full pic.

    [​IMG]

    He commented that she was kinda hot and that he'd want to go see her play. Then he asked me if she was a good player.

    So I guess this is a good example of advertising that walks the line in appreciating the existing players/fans of the game while also serving to attract a new audience to the game.
     
  22. CardtheBird

    CardtheBird New Member

    Dec 1, 2010
    How old is your colleague? I hope he is a high school intern, because in this photo Tiffany looks like she is still in high school.

    On a more serious note, I've never been one to pay much attention to a performer's looks, but I understand that many do. I also disagree with marketing that emphasizes looks because it can harm your product. Just look at the mediocrity that dominates the music and movie industries.

    But I wouldn't have a heart attack about marketing like this. I would describe Tiffany as more not unattractive than as hot. And while she obviously received a professional makeup job, I wouldn't describe this ad as using sex to sell soccer. Which is about the approach teams should take with marketing.

    One question. When you get a chance, DeigoRedD, ask your colleague whether he has since googled Tiffany and if so is he still interested in seeing her play. Today most guys google any attractive woman they see. Google Tiffany. Her photo in the Vancouver ad is her best photo. Which leads me to wonder whether in the internet age it's really possible to use sex or attractiveness to sell women's soccer. Yes, an ad may catch someone's eye, but if they can just google a player and find dozens or hundreds of less flattering photos, are they likely to attend that first game let alone attend multiple games or purchase season tickets.
     
  23. thegamesthatrate

    Jan 9, 2007
    But there is something important to remember. The team had crowds of 50,000 or more in all six games, sold out the Rose Bowl and Giants Stadium for the final and the opener, respectively, outdrew that year's Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals in the Brazil semifinal and outdraw ANY of that year's NBA finals games in the final. And, that was BEFORE Chastain ripped off her jersey (which I suspected she was going to do, but that is another thread).

    Thus, something drove the popularity of the team other than Chastain's sports bra. Somehow, the team has dissipated that appeal and lure since 1999. I'm all ears for who can help explain that dissipation.
     
  24. soccernutter

    soccernutter Moderator
    Staff Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    Aug 22, 2001
    Near the mountains.
    Club:
    Tottenham Hotspur FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Just happened on this and read though some posts...

    It is just me, or does nobody else find skill and success sexy. FFS, I would not call Brandi Chastain hot, but damn was she sexy as she celebrated. What I think marketers get wrong is that success is attractive. This is one of the the reasons that I think the Women's team was so popular in 1999.
     
  25. StarCityFan

    StarCityFan BigSoccer Supporter

    Aug 2, 2001
    Greenbelt, MD
    Club:
    Washington Freedom
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think a lot of it is that Americans always look for something bigger and better than they've seen before, and there's no way of topping 1999. Despite all the hype, it doesn't appear that 1999 resulted in very many more soccer fans in general, else the WUSA would have had fewer problems.
     

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