"Takeaways from how the media covered and reacted to Aaron Hernandez's arrest"

From Awful Announcing and Rolling Stone

Review by Zach Lantz in SRM 334 (section 1)

Today, the public has the ability to know about everything going on in a professional or college athlete’s life. This is because the media has access to everything surrounding the athlete’s life. A good example of this is the Rolling Stone’s article about the murder of Odin Lloyd, Aaron Hernandez has been charged for a few months ago. The article describes every little detail of Aaron, including how Aaron and Lloyd “kicked it” at a club called Rumor and “smoked that super-duper and Aaron dropped 10 G’s like it was nothing.” Rolling Stone went personal with Aaron Hernandez by having exclusive interviews with family friends. Friends revealed that Aaron was not only smoking marijuana, but he was also using the drug “angel dust’, typically known as PCP. The article explains how Hernandez and Lloyd were in the club when Odin talked to people that Hernandez was not fond of. All of this leading to the murder. 

In my opinion, the media does a great job at covering events like these days. Is it right, that the media has so much access to the lives of celebrities and athletes? One could feel as though it is not morally right, even in situations like these. News is broadcasted faster than it ever has been before and social media websites such as Twitter makes that possible. People can now get texts to their phone with breaking news or with just a quick Google search they can find thousands of articles with news on what they’re looking for. Today, the media is much more close and personal with athletes and it is making their home life much more public.

This article is related to this class because it is a current event and gives a perfect example on how sporting news can be communicated to people. The Aaron Hernandez story was wrote about on a Rolling Stones website where sports are not usually talked about. It also shows a perfect example on how the New England Patriots dealt with a crisis. As soon as Hernandez was arrested for the murder on Odin Lloyd, the Patriots released him and also allowed their fans to exchange their Hernandez jersey for another Patriots player. This article has related to many aspects of this class and made it very easy for me to relate to things that I will learn about.

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Review by Dustin Taylor in SRM 334 (section 1)

Most people who love sports know just about everything that’s going on in the sports world if they choose to do so. The reason is that content providers in sports media are always working, 24/7, to uncover the next big story. They may even be continuing to cover an ongoing story. This summer, Patriots Tight End, Aaron Hernandez was arrested on murder charges. Many media content providers jumped at the chance to cover this story including rolling stones, ESPN, and NFL Network.

Rolling stones just recently released an article detailing a lot about this whole situation. They gave information on Hernandez’s parents, siblings, uncles, friends, coaches, and anyone else that had an effect on his life. Hernandez was bred to be great. His father put a gym with successful quotes on the walls in their family’s home, and drove his two sons (Aaron and his older brother DJ) to greatness. Aaron, however, far exceeded his father and brother in terms of success. He was the greatest athlete his town had ever produced. He went on to college at Florida University, where it is believe Urban Meyer covered for Hernandez on multiple drug test. Following his father’s death Aaron continued to fall out of control. He threated Patriots Wide Receiver Wes Welker soon after being drafted into the NFL. Then this offseason he became addicted to angel dust, started skipping workouts, and was on screw up away from being cut from the team. Bigger things then skipping practice would come before his departure from the team. Hernandez would be indicted on murder charges of his good friend Odin Lloyd. The sports media world would have plenty of coverage to go along with this story as it progressed.

ESPN had live footage of Hernandez getting arrested, and they covered this story pretty constant as Adam Schefter and other sports writers constantly took to Twitter to give sports gurus the news they were after. This is a huge example of how times have changed. Just 13 years ago Ravens Linebacker Ray Lewis was also indicted on charges of murder. While it gained some attention, the coverage was nothing like the Aaron Hernandez case. Twitter, and Facebook were not around. If you go back just a little further in NFL history to the O.J. Simpson case there was an even bigger drop off in regards to media coverage. Newspapers printed the story, and news channels covered it, but no one was there to give real time updates. Hernandez’s case has up to the minute updates as someone in the courtroom with him tweets during his hearing to keep everyone up to speed. In awfulannouncing.com’s article written by Brad Gagnon he criticizes how ESPN left the live coverage of Hernandez’s hearing to speak to their own “experts”. With a story as big as this one there was plenty of time to bring them in once the hearing was done.

NFL Network had a rough job. They had to cover the story since that’s what this day and age calls for. At the same time this story was bad Public Relations for the NFL. They had to walk a fine line, and continue to update the people on what actions the Patriots and NFL would take toward Hernandez to try to help their perception as a league. The NFL, and the Patriots would’ve had plenty of time to come up with a response about 15-20 years ago. Now they have to be on their toes, and immediately taking action to keep the positive model of the league in tack.

This story has many relevant issues that go along with our class. With similar cases in the past this story can show how much times, and technology has changed in regards to sports media. People expect updates, and stories the minute they happen. The next morning paper is out of date. It also displays the pressure put on organizations to have someone good with the media always ready to speak on their behalf.

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"Pro-marijuana ads pulled from NASCAR’s Brickyard 400"

From the New York Daily News

Review by Kolbie Owens in SRM 435 (section 2)

This past July, the Marijuana Policy Project created a pro-marijuana advertisement that was supposed to be seen at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the jumbotron. However, the constant criticism from anti-drug groups caused the company who owned the jumbotron to take it down. The ad called “New Beer” specifically targeted beer and alcohol consumption. Within the advertisement, people are being violent, are hungover, and in depression from drinking alcohol. Then it cuts to individuals that are happy and smiling because they have smoked marijuana. The Drug Free America Foundation, Inc and Save our Society from Drugs had the biggest problem with the advertisement. They complained about how this ad was making false statements that say marijuana is safer than alcohol.

From a marketing point of view this advertisement should have not been shown in Indiana. It should have been shown in another state where marijuana is legal, such as Colorado or Washington State. In these states, the advertisement would be less criticized, and more publicized. Indianapolis does not even allow medical marijuana, so to pick a NASCAR audience in this location was a bad target audience to choose.

From a sales point of view, I find this advertisement very effective. Targeting alcohol, beer specifically, was very smart because alcohol is an extremely popular drug that is advertised with little criticism. Also, beer is very prominent in the sports world. It is sold at almost every sport event, and publicized tremendously. Therefore, showing the negative affects of alcohol, with the positive affects of marijuana, cause the audience to think marijuana could be a better option. This article is a great representation of what we will learn in class. Marketing and sales are all about consumer behaviors, and creating effective ways to sell products. This controversy with the pro-marijuana advertisement just shows what problems can occur when a product is not sold or marketed in the right way. This class is going to give me the skills to create strategies, and develop effective marketing plans, so that I will become successful in this field.

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Review by Jennifer Luck in SRM 435 (section 2)

A commercial “touting marijuana as an alternative to beer” was pulled from displays outside a NASCAR race after just a few airings. The ad was purchased by the Marijuana Policy Project-the nation’s largest pro-marijuana legalization advocacy group-“and was celebrated by the organization as the first time a pro-pot campaign would be seen at a major sporting event.” However, the boards set to display the commercial were not technically on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s grounds. An independent media company, Grazie Media, owns the jumbotron. When officials with the company that had allowed the Marijuana Policy Project to purchase airtime caught wind of its pro-marijuana message, they scrambled to take it down. “We decided to pull ultimately because it’s not obviously a great fit for the NASCAR audience, for the family kind of oriented audience, that’s why we decided to pull the ad,” Grazie Media CEO Vanessa Wojtala said in a released statement. 

Mason Tvert, Director of Communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, jabbed back at the advertiser’s decision, accusing the company of being hypocritical in supporting alcohol-related content while denying the marijuana ad. “We find it odd that this company is willing to run ads at an alcohol-fueled event, yet unwilling to run an ad that simply highlights the ways in which marijuana is less harmful than alcohol,” he said.

Marijuana is not legal in Indiana, for medical or recreational use. The ad was scheduled to play 72 times throughout the weekend.

From a marketing standpoint, this ad should not be played at a major sporting event. No matter what one’s opinion is on marijuana, this pro-pot ad is promoting an illegal drug. Marijuana is not legal in Indiana, for medical or recreational use. I do not believe it is smart for a media company to allow a pro-illegal drug commercial play at an event where hundreds of thousands of people are going to see it. Marketing is used to communicate the value of a product or service to customers, for the purpose of selling the product and service. Marketing should only be used to promote legal products and services.

However, from a sales point of view, this commercial is a new opportunity for companies to make money. It is probably not the smartest idea to have this commercial play in a state where marijuana is not legalized, but in the 18 states where medical marijuana and two states where recreational use is legalized this ad can be played. As marijuana continues to be legalized in the United States, it is going to be advertised more in the public eye. Just think about how much money FOX is going to make this year off of beer commercials alone in this year’s Super Bowl. Who knows, maybe one day these major TV networks will have a new source of commercial income.
This class examines how promotional activities and sales efforts are closely intertwined and impact upon the success or failure of the sport and leisure industry. This promotional ad was not approved by the sports industry, and NASCAR is lucky they were able to dodge what could have been a major crisis.