The ordinary person is an insignificant speck with little hope of making an impact on society. Especially so now that society is influenced over the entire globe so rapidly. Running for small town mayor, one needs only convince a small town population that you are better than the other guy. (Realistically, you are the lesser of two evils.). This doesn’t change much going on in other towns in the proximity. Kicking things up to a national level, you need wider appeal. And as the evolution of crank magnetism and confirmation bias based grifting has marched along, the tactic of celebrity endorsement in advertising has evolved.
Sports figures are always a great opportunity to attach a name to a product. Attaching a familiar face and name to some capitalist trinket is, was, and always will be a chance to have someone buy that car, brand of beer, snack chip or werewolf insurance just because their hero endorsed it. The effectiveness of change is by masses getting on board with the idea. You, Joe Average, aren’t going to keep Budweiser in business. But, if a whole bunch of people like the quarterback promoting Bud, the commercials will probably become a series of commercials instead of a one and done. The money keeps flowing in.
The downside, our never ending quest to dwell in negativity and engage in culture war. Maybe the sports baller got a DUI charge, tarnishing his image. Maybe he beat up his wife just before the DUI. And maybe he was drinking Coors instead. These things happen when the celebrity is only endorsing the product and getting a check without sincere love for the product. Does any celebrity endorsement include actual love for their promoted product? It makes one wonder.
Celebrities, despite the obvious part of being more well known than Joe Average, are still human beings. And attention is a powerful reinforcer. And maintaining the level of attention as age catches up and the on field skills wane or the stardom fades, that’s the prime candidate for a celebrity endorsement. And the product doesn’t need any real value. And the product can be harmful. The I’m always right mentality big a toxic narcissist outweighs common sense and scientific reality. The quest to remain relevant is now not talking about your good ideas, but by getting any engagement at all, including out stupiding your rivals. Being a colossal douchebag does get a lot of attention.
Aaron “Karen” Rodgers, a not relevant anymore on the field quarterback has challenged Mr. Pfizer Travis Kielce to a debate. The standard format of a conspiracy theorist debate. It’s unlikely that the debate will ever happen and the suggestion of willingness to debate is a message to the lingering supports that says, “Look at me and how I’m such a badass!” Since big names are thrown into the mix, Fauci is welcomed to join in the disingenuous struggle. There’s lots of people that don’t like Fauci. His function for a debate here is poster boy of the logical fallacy of appeal to authority. Pick a side, evil Fauci or badass Karen Rodgers. There’s no middle ground. No actual debate.
In the meantime, Karen has extended his career through the use of the same science he’s denying. Surgeons able to learn how to repair torn ligaments are fully knowledgeable that vaccinations work. It’s all fun and games claiming your special and don’t have to follow any other rules when it hypocritically doesn’t suit you. Hypocrisy, being another piece of the conspiracy grifting, “Debate me bro!” attitude.
And it’s probably not even as much about Rodgers and Kelce as it is about their teammates. Not their on field teammates. Rodgers is aligned with the irrelevant Pat Mcafee, famous for his own, “I’m special, I don’t need to follow the rules” incident.
And on the other side, Mr. Pfizer is getting way more attention for the Taylor Swift association than the football or Pfizer promotion. I also don’t think we need Taylor chiming in on her personal thoughts about vaccines. The entire debate from these people, other than Fauci, should be limited to, “Read up on what the WHO and CDC says about it, they’re the experts.”
Hubbard, of course, has dabbled in celebrity endorsements for gematria. There was a push to get on Joe Rogan’s show. I’m actually kind of surprised Rogan didn’t do that. Maybe he was part of the crowd that figured that although the attitude would be fun for one show’s ratings, gematria was just too weird. But more notable is how Hubbard has had Jeff Young of Megadeth call in to his radio show. The Jeff Young that squandered a golden opportunity to make Megadethbucks by managing to get fired from the band after a couple years. The Jeff Young looking to remain relevant outside of just playing the guitar.
Well congratulations people. Your choices of picking the biggest, loudest mouthpieces has gotten the US into full blown congressional deadlock. It used to be more subtle gridlock where you’d attach riders to bills or drum up the votes to get a particular piece of legislation passed or squashed. Now people care more about what Aaron Rodgers has to say about non football issues or what brand of beer you should drink before not getting vaccinated at the onset of the next inevitable pandemic.
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