I know the money must make it worthwhile for MJ, but does anyone else really hate the long distance commercials that he does? I thought “Space Jam” was okay, but I’m not sure that it makes a good platform for shilling long distance service to adults.
Don’t even get me started on Terry Bradshaw and his “10-10…” commercials. We should treat him like a national treasure and seal him in an airtight container and put him in a vault somewhere.
(BTW: I like Jordan and Bradshaw as sports figures. I just despise seeing them in commercials.)
“It’s only common sense,
There are no accidents 'round here.”
MJ is a whore, plain and simple. We all know he has more cash than he knows what to do with. Terry, well, maybe he was hoping the ‘Cannonball Run’ residuals would carry him into the golden years, and he came up short.
Personally, I wouldn’t buy water from MJ if my privates were on fire. I hate that shill. He makes $35mil a year, just on endorsements. My guess is he used the bulk of that to bribe the judges on ESPN to make him the ‘greatest athlete of the 20th century’, and he needs some more new cars…
If my most bizarre fantasies came true, he’d find religion, give all his money to kids’ charities and go live in Tibet, so I would never have to see his dumb ass ever again.
Whew. Sorry about that.
-sb
They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain’t bad.
But Spanky, it sounds to me like you’re just envious of Mike’s $. If you could make $35 million a year on endorsements, you would be making commercials by the busload. And what makes you think he isn’t religeous or charitable?
“We all know”… Don’t presume to speak for the group Spanky. I think the ignorance you need to fight is your own.
I can’t really begrudge Jordan, Bradshaw, and all the rest for doing the commercials. If somebody waved a bunch of money at me and asked me if I would plug their product I might do the same thing. What I don’t get is how advertisers think that these type of endorsements sell their products.
BTW: I just can’t picture Jordan chowing down on Ball Park franks in real life.
“It’s only common sense,
There are no accidents 'round here.”
Righto and bingo; if someone panted after me with a few million dollars in hand, I can’t guarentee I wouldn’t do stand-up shilling with cartoon characters either.
Most of the MJ/Looney Toons things are pretty feeble, but I do get a chuckle out of Bugs sliding across the news desk, baseball uniform tearing away to show basketball silks underneath: “Change is good!”
But none of the retired sports figures shilling stadium food, arthritis remedies and such can equal Joe Namath’s full page ad for panty hose. I was just a kid but remember that one well!
I read that Jordan makes more from Nike ads than all of Nike’s Asian child laborers combined. Pretty fucked up if that’s true and I wouldn’t doubt that it is.
What’s even worse is washed up old sports stars doing local commercials. This can get pretty hilarious. The one that springs immediately to mind is a commercial for aluminum siding featuring Archie Manning, an old N.O. Saints QB. It’s so sad to hear him rattling on in a bored voice about “this great new siding from Vipco.” At the end of the commercial he says “There’s only one catch” (football gently tossed from off-camera into Manning’s hands) “And that’s IT! Take it from a Saint. This is Archie You-know-who for Southern Siding.”
(Not arguing with anyone here; just making a point.)
Actually, endorsements ARE commercials, and vice-versa.
You have to admit that MJ has done some truely amazing things on the court. Companies use “heroes” because they are under the impression that people believe that if they buy a hero-endorsed product, they have some sort of “connection” with him/her.
MJ is the Antichrist, and I say that as a Cleveland Cavaliers fan who was present in the Richfield Coliseum when Jordan made the f****** shot. The point is not that he’s rich and famous, but is that he’s already rich and famous, so rich and famous that he’s got enough cash for several hundred lifetimes, and he bitches about not having and normal life, yet he’s still doing crap like the commercials already mentioned. That, and part of his new job with the Washington Wizards, he sent Wes Unseld to do the dirty work of telling Coarch Gar Heard that he was fired, while Jordan ducked away to a Super Bowl party.
Don’t worry about ol’ Archie. His son just made more in one season than he did in his entire career.
My biggest complaint about MJ is his diction; it’s often hard to understand what he says. He’s a mushmouth. I often wish I had the closed-captioning turned on when he’s talking.
Anyway, as a Tar Heels fan, I can’t be too far down on MJ (though I was reaally sick and tired of the Chicago Bulls by the time he was about to retire for the last time), but what really pisses me off is the complete dumbing-down and selling out of the Looney Toons characters. They managed to find decent voices to take over after Mel Blanc passed on, but every time I see one of those commercials, I imagine I can’t hear those voices because of all the noise Mr. Blanc is making while spinning in his grave!
If Warner Bros. can’t find a decent venue for this cast of characters - which should be one of their most prized possesions of all - they need to retire them.
When the MJ/Toons commercials just started, I noted that Bugs Bunny was never in them. I used to joke that MCI could afford Mike, but Bugs was out of their price range.
Of course, now Bugs has come down to the same level. My hero has fallen.
Well, for one, I used the religion thing as a vehicle for getting him out of the country. Heck, he could give away all his money and go butterfly collecting, for all I care.
Secondly, can someone from the Chicago area tell me what philanthropy he did in the area (if any)? I know that Curtis Joseph (NHL goalie) has an entire luxury box set aside for disabled kids, in his name (to the tune of about $250k a year). Some of the most cementheaded enforcers (Rob Ray, Tie Domi, Kris King) spend a bunch of time with disadvantaged kids, and give a lot of time and money to charitable causes. And I would venture to guess that these guys make less combined than Jordan does, just for hawking shoes.
But, perhaps you are right about me being uptight about Jordan’s dough. Call me selfish, but I’d much rather see that money go to teachers, or re-pave the local streets…
-sb
They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain’t bad.