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NEW YORKER: MJ "THE GREATEST BRAND IN THE HISTORY OF SPORTS"

          Michael Jordan "has become the greatest corporate
     pitchman of all time," according to Henry Louis Gates, who
     examines the marketing of Jordan under the header, "Net
     Worth: How the greatest player in the history of basketball
     became the greatest brand in the history of sports."  Gates: 
     "As a twentieth-century sports hero, he has plausible
     competition from Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali; as an agent of
     brand equity, he is without peer."  Gates writes that in the
     '80s, Jordan's agent David Falk "grasped" that branding "can
     be a reciprocal process."  Gates: "Falk had no equity in
     Nike or McDonald's or Coca-Cola or Chevrolet.  He had equity
     in Michael Jordan to leverage their brands; Falk would use
     their brands to leverage Jordan."  But while companies
     Jordan endorses such as Quaker Oats, Sara Lee and WorldCom
     "have helped entrench the brand that is Michael Jordan,"
     they have "lessened the specialness of his association with
     Nike."  Nike Chair Phil Knight: "If you were teaching a
     course in marketing, that wouldn't be the way to do it.  But
     he has overcome all those mistakes by his greatness."
          TRANSCENDING RACE: Gates writes, "Fame, not water, is
     the universal solvent.  What to do with the fact that the
     voice and face of American corporate capitalism belong to an
     African-American -- a very dark and very male one at that?" 
     Falk: "Celebrities aren't black.  People don't look at
     Michael as being black.  They accept that he's different
     because he's a celebrity."  Jordan, on his mystique: "Each
     and every year, I've been expecting it -- the dropoff. ...
     But it's not happening.  And I don't really know why, or how
     long it's going to last" (NEW YORKER, 6/1 issue). 
          MORE MJ: Nikki Tait of the FINANCIAL TIMES examines the
     value of Jordan to the Chicago market, under the header
     "What Happens To Chicago When the Bulls Break Up?"  Three
     years ago, the Chicago Chamber of Commerce estimated that
     the Bulls' total impact on the Chicago economy was about
     $10.5M a game.  Tait writes the "crucial question is how
     long this economic/image boost ... can continue. ... Back in
     the mid-1990s economists talked of an immediate $100M loss
     to the local economy if the Bulls suddenly folded.  Today,
     that figure looks conservative" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 5/29).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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