Ubiquitous Marketing

Enough about Peyton Manning. Well, maybe after this story.

If you don’t know who Peyton Manning is, consider yourself lucky. The rest of us will have to ponder whether we hate him or not, whether we think he deserves to win the Super Bowl, and whether he’s a nerd or a jock.

What I do find interesting, however, is the prevailing meme that part of our hatred for Peyton Manning has to do with his, em, marketing ubiquity.

Says Slate:

Manning’s stardom has always been problematic. He is indisputably the best quarterback of our day, one of the greats of all time, the scion of an eminently likable signal-calling dynasty, a player who combines prodigious physical gifts and an instinctive feel for the game. And yet, on the eve of the biggest game of his career, he finds himself scorned, mocked, and generally loathed in any part of the country that is not Indianapolis, Tennessee (where he played college ball), the Garden District of New Orleans (where he was raised), or Madison Avenue (where he pitches Gatorade, DIRECTV, Sprint, ESPN, MasterCard, and Reebok, among others). A victory on Sunday, and Canton can go ahead and commission the bust. But nobody, not even Time magazine, wants to cheer for him.

But everyone seems to think that people have (apparently) disliked Manning beforehand. So why is Madison Avenue backing a man who no one liked (and dislike more as a result of MadAve interference)? This marketing strategy makes no sense. Tell the people!

Well, I believe that meme is fallacious. I believe that a lot of people like Manning well enough. I know there’s plenty of people who loathe him and take every opportunity to poke fun at him, but I argue he has much more respect that any sports journalist seems to believe.
Maybe I’m naive, but surely MadAve does its research. I think people like Peyton Manning. As to whether they want him to win a Super Bowl or not, jury’s still out.