# Famous people or organizations you'd never heard of until they engaged in something controversial. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 23, 2009, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649 "2009-11-23T16:08:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649/41 "2013-06-30T08:52:49Z")
I always confused Joe Paterno with two or three other coaches with Italian surnames in that general area until the scandal broke. Related to Selena…I never heard of Howard Stern in South Texas until there were protests against him where I live in south Texas. After Selena’s murder, he played a couple her records on his show and mocked them. Of course, Stern mocks everything, but in the local media our first impression was that some DJ from New York City was being nasty to a local icon. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649/42 "2013-06-30T13:17:25Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Joe Paterno and the Penn State football team. And? I can see not knowing the name of a football coach, even one of the most famous of all time, but you never heard of Penn State? And didn’t know that schools have football teams? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649/43 "2013-06-30T13:23:21Z")
For a significant portion of the American adolescent population, the message is delivered with brutal clarity: Football doesn’t care about you. So we return the regard in kind. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649/44 "2013-06-30T13:28:23Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > For a significant portion of the American adolescent population, the message is delivered with brutal clarity: Football doesn’t care about you. So we return the regard in kind. But you are aware it exists? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649/45 "2013-06-30T14:57:54Z")
I never heard of [G4S](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G4S) before the news about the fiasco with regard to its mismanagement of the security planning for the 2012 London Olympic Games. But it’s one of the world’s largest employers with 620,000 employees (behind only Walmart and Foxconn among private employers). And actually I’ll bet that many people never heard of Foxconn or its parent company Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. before the employee issues at Shenzhen, although I had (heard of it before then). I know people who have visited their factory complex at Shenzhen and it’s enormous from what I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649/46 "2013-06-30T16:19:36Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > And? I can see not knowing the name of a football coach, even one of the most famous of all time, but you never heard of Penn State? And didn’t know that schools have football teams? Being from a county with no American football and no college sports, I can assure you that no-one here heard of him before, during or after the scandal. If I wasn’t on this board, I wouldn’t have heard of him myself. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649/47 "2013-06-30T16:51:45Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > And? I can see not knowing the name of a football coach, even one of the most famous of all time, but you never heard of Penn State? And didn’t know that schools have football teams? If someone doesn’t live in/near Pennsylvania and doesn’t watch any sort of sports and isn’t shopping for a good program in whatever it is that school has a good program in, I’m not sure there’s any real reason for them to have heard of Penn State. Before all that mess, the only thing I could have told you about Penn State is that I think maybe sometimes they make it into March Madness, and they’re presumably a state school somewhere in Pennsylvania. I couldn’t even have said for sure they had a football team, only assumed they probably did because most state schools do. ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649/48 "2013-06-30T20:23:14Z")
I’d never heard of Chik-Fill-A until the recent brouhaha about their homophobic practices. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649/49 "2013-06-30T21:35:41Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > And? I can see not knowing the name of a football coach, even one of the most famous of all time, but you never heard of Penn State? And didn’t know that schools have football teams? Well I knew Penn State existed and I guess I would have reasoned out it’d have a football team but never connected the two together-I’ve never thought of say the U of Texas basketball team although I suppose one exists. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649/50 "2013-07-02T12:48:20Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Famous people or organizations you’d never heard of until they engaged in something controversial. [Amanda Bynes](http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/stars/amanda-bynes.html), until her meltdown(s) on twitter. ---
**Author:** ![Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speak_to_me_Maddie)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649/51 "2013-07-02T13:25:58Z")
I know it’s a zombie and all, but I might mention that I had never even heard of Jodi Arias until a couple days ago. This seems unbelievable to a couple people I know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-or-organizations-youd-never-heard-of-until-they-engaged-in-something-controversial/518649.md?page=2)