Today, I heard a radio ad for AdminiStaff voiced by Arnold Palmer. Arnie must have a huge nest egg socked away from his golf career. I would think that his later-in-life career might involve designing golf courses, creating a golf school, I dunno, golf stuff to take advantage of his name. But here he is pitching a firm that is basically an employee leasing company for small businesses.
In one of those newspaper magazines this week, I saw an ad featuring Ed McMahon for a step-in tub for older people. Now, Ed must have been the most highly paid sycophant in the history of the world. I would think he must be enjoying a luxurious retirement. If he still wanted to be in the public eye I would think he could write a book, do a talk show, I dunno, entertainment stuff.
I could list others.
Why do they do it? Favors for relatives? Spent their cash too fast?
Arnold Palmer does have a very successful business in designing golf courses. I played one in West Virginia last fall.
But unless Arnie happens to be here, I don’t know how anyone could answer why Arnie endorsed that particular company, but he’s certainly not hurting for money. Arnie was reported a few years ago to have 20 “revenue streams,” more than any active or retired golfer at that time. Palmer also was the highest-earning person in pro golf until 2000, apparently.
This gets very quickly into a value judgment: why does Arnold Palmer need a reason to do an endorsement? He gets paid, maybe believes in the product, and the company wins. I’d think his only worry would be spreading himself too thin, but hey – huge Hollywood stars go to film nutty commercials in Japan, and they don’t “need” the money. I think most people wouldn’t see too much of a problem in getting paid probably a significant amount for minimal work.
Ah, I just see here that Arnie remains the third top-grossing golfer in 2006/2007. You can’t make that kind of scratch without doing endorsements.
The question quickly leads to asking why Bill Gates or even more mundane multi-millionairs don’t just retire when they get enough money to live well for the rest of their lives. If you know any self-made people like that, you will soon notice that they aren’t normal people and usually have no desire to drop everything and settle down on a beach somewhere. It just isn’t in their nature and he didn’t bet to be where he is by being laid back or content with a medium amount of success. I have no idea how that translates into unrelated commercial spots. He probably loves being on camera and maybe he needs a mental break from golf once in while.
I know a very driven couple that have over $100,000,000. The husband does everything from sit on company and college boards of directors to speaking and starting new companies. You know what the wife does? One thing is that she drives 45 minutes to my house on many weekends and helps me with landscaping ore yard. She is in her late 55’s and has a bad back plus more money than God and yet she does hard physical labor with me including loading loads of earth and stone by hand. She brings huge plants over that she dug up herself and does it all for free of course. She does that type of thing for other people as well. I have no idea why except that is what she likes to do and money can’t replace that.
All the very successful people I know are like that and have no intention of stopping and doing new things. You can’t ever tell what they will pick up for one reason or another.
Reasonable explanation in my estimation, and not all that surprising I would think. What really makes me ask the question though is substituting narcotraffickers for the respectable self-made rich. Sure, maybe the same feelings apply, but then with that much money and the ability to launder it, why don’t they have the idea of taking the challenge to the next level and being legit?
I know a couple like Shagnasty describes. More money than they know what to do with. So they come up with things to do (more often than not, community-beneficial things not usually self-beneficial things). Which costs money. So they also have “hobbies” (stock trading, board-sitting, etc) which make more money which balance out their “hobbies” that cost money (suing governments, stock trading, travel, etc).
It’s probably worth noting that very few people become rich if they are not driven to work. It’s exactly the Type A, have to be working, bored silly at the beach kind of people who are going to make good money in our society.
The corollary to this answers the other timeworn question: “Why are rich people to stingy?” Answer: you don’t get rich by being foolishly generous.
Do you think money is the only reason people work? What would Bill Gates do if he stopped working? How many mansions or yachts can a person own? How many vacations can you take before getting burned out? If it were only about the money, he would have retired years and years ago, but what kind of boring life would he have now?
This is why winning the lottery often has disastrous results. There’s a huge difference between self-made wealth and a sudden unearned windfall. If Arnold Palmer hadn’t spent a day doing that commercial, what would he have done that day instead? Played golf? Gone to the beach? Read a book? He’s already done those things, and probably needs to feel productive now and then. But it has nothing to do with money.
This is exactly what I was going to say. Type A personalities are tough to stop - my dad is one, as well as my wife. Always have to be doing something, always have a goal, always have the pressures of life on their shoulders. Even after retirement they need constant stimulation through sports, projects, investments, whatever…Unfortunately this gene skips generations, as I am definitely Type B Lets put it this way - when my father goes to his condo at the beach (where I would just sit and enjoy the scenery), he gets bored and takes a 7 mile walk, 2 months after having a double bypass. Now what type of retired person would do this? Only a Type A I presume. I’ll wager Arnold Palmer is the same.
Being from Orlando I can say that Arnold does a lot for the community, and even has a hospital named after himself and his late wife Winnie. I’m not sure how this comes into play but he’s not hoarding it all for himself, or at least that’s the impression he’s given Orlando.
Or maybe like **Postcards **said, it’s a quick shoot so why not.
Getting off topic and way too anecdotal for GC, I’ll just quickly add that a friend of a friend is a billionaire in his 60s, and is still developing land, running several companies, and pushing projects forward. I ask “why does he not just retire?” and am told “because he’s done everything he has wanted to do in life”. I guess some people just need more stimulation than the rest of us.
I’ve seen Arnie pitching some of this stuff and I ask the same question. It’s one thing to want to keep working, in the public eye and seek a sense of self-fulfillment. It’s another thing to pitch any crummy thing that comes down the pike. Arnie and McMahon have pitched and lent their names to some stuff that is questionable and seem exploitive of people that aren’t savvy.
Personally, I’ve lost a lot of respect for both of them. There are a lot of driven, successful, famous people that are past their prime and could put their face out there but refuse to pitch crap to the unsuspecting.
Somehow, I don’t see Bill Gates retiring from Microsoft and selling rip-off insurance to senior citizens.
My guess would be that they have deal with a management company to fill, say, every other thursday in, say, Orlando, with activities that generate as much money as possible. They turn up at the office and go “What am I doing today and how much for” and the agency says something like “Three radio spots and two product photoshoots, two hundred and four thou, you’ll be done by four thirty and the last shoot is taking place at the marina so you can go for a sail afterwards if you like”
Providing the products/services/etc. are approved by their agent and managment company (who are after all paid to keep their client happy and protect their image) I would be surprised if they knew anything at all about what they are shilling.
If you reread the OP, you will see that I am not asking why rich people continue to work. I am asking why rich people appear to be scraping the bottom of the barrel. I would not be asking this question if Bill retired and sat on a dozen boards of directors, or went back to finish his college education. I would not be asking if Ed McMahon were hosting a game show, or writing a book. I would not be asking if I heard Arnie on the radio pitching golf balls, or the Arnold Palmer School of Golf.
I am asking because these guys seem to be doing things that cheapen the images they worked so hard to achieve. Why would they do that?
Exactly so. I was staying in a hotel in Imatra where the Finnish Rolls Royce Enthusiasts Club was meeting. I watched from the balcony as classic Rolls Royces and Bentleys pulled up in front of the hotel all afternoon. Two thirds of them unloaded a case of Lappenkulta beer from the trunk. You don’t get rich enough to afford a Rolls by paying minibar prices for beer.
What image did Palmer work so hard to acquire that it’s cheapened by endorsing a temp agency?
Do you also see it cheapening if he happens to use their services and be a satisfied customer?
If one of your satisfied customers was Arnold Palmer, would you consider it a slur on his image to ask him to let you post his “thank you” note or appear on one of your ads?
I have no problem with celebrities doing paid endorsements. But what is really pathetic: some aging has-been, trying to hook you into some worthless investment scheme-or shadey characters (like Tom Cruise0 shilling for the $cientology cult.
Come to think of it: WHY do those low-end telesales ads on cable TV, always use unknown Brit/australian actors?
Or, like the guy who plugs “MEDICAL CURES THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT”-they guy stares’ like he’s in awe of this worthless crap!
Lets put it this way - when my father goes to his condo at the beach (where I would just sit and enjoy the scenery), he gets bored and takes a 7 mile walk, 2 months after having a double bypass. Now what type of retired person would do this? Only a Type A I presume. I’ll wager Arnold Palmer is the same.
I would not be asking if Ed McMahon were hosting a game show, or writing a book. I would not be asking if I heard Arnie on the radio pitching golf balls, or the Arnold Palmer School of Golf.