As the Truth sees it…

Lindsey Vonn prepares for Winter Olympics.

If you look hard enough, anyone can find controversy. The latest example is the Feb. 8 issue of Sports Illustrated. On the cover, American downhill skier Lindsey Vonn is shown in what some are calling a extremely provocative pose in a skin tight skiing outfit.
Detractors of the cover feel that Sports Illustrated is using Vonn’s attractiveness just to sell copies of their magazine.
According to womantalksports.com, “When females are featured on the cover of SI, they are more likely than not to be in sexualized poses and not in action-and the most recent Vonn cover is no exception.”
I agree with them. But I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. Putting a beautiful woman on the front of almost any magazine will sell more. It’s advertising 101.
The fact is Vonn is not the first athlete to use sexuality to sell magazines. Gabrielle Reece, the 2002 Brazilian “women’s soccer team, figure skater Katarina Witt all posed for Playboy. Even Jim Brown posed fully nude for Play Girl in 1974.
When Brandi Chastain ripped off her shirt during the women’s world cup and celebrated in her sports bra, the photo was shown across the country. And for a brief moment in time, Americans actually cared about professional women’s soccer. The players who came before Chastain may have hated the spectacle she made, but they could not argue with the attention that was drawn to their sport.
Vonn is trying to do the same thing for not only downhill skiing, but for the entire Winter Olympics. As of now, the Olympics is genarating as much buzz as a wine cooler. Not only will Vonn’s Sport’s Illustrated cover shot bring added attention, so will the controversy surrounding it. It’s marketing genius.
Michael Kinney

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 10:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.