This month's The Field Magazine has a couple of interesting items I can thoroughly recommend reading. The opening story is of how the Olympic shooting team was snubbed by Cherie Blair when they received the opportunity to meet dignitaries at Number 10. The article goes further into how the Olympic Budget has seen shooting's slice slashed by 80%. A temporary shooting ground (quite indicative of the current administration) is to be erected at a cost of £25 million to the tax payer at Woolwich. This comes as Bisley still maintains it's world-renown status following the 2002 Commonwealth games.
The second item comes from the letter's page, where a lady wrote in to inform The Field of friend of the author hitting a right and left at a woodcock ( a very difficult manoeuvre to pull off in shooting). The end of the letter ends as such:
'...the more ladies we can encourage into shooting the more support we can expect from the public at large'
Being a typical PR student, I pondered this end statement. Normally a celebrity spokesperson may add weight to a cause, but more women in a oft-mistaken male-orientated sport? A most interesting idea....
Let's look stateside for some answers. The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) of WWE fame, and a Correspondent recommended auto-bigoraphy, once spoke at the Republican National Convention (much like Conservative Conference Season). A known Republican, he could be seen as a brand champion:
O. Burns Celebrity Endorsement Formula
'Keen & Clean' celebrity spokesman + product/belief + media channel(s) = air time
air time ÷ new/renewed interest in product/belief = % positively changed public opinion
Perhaps this idea might help our shooting cause. What if someone like The Rock could become a brand champion for one of Great Britain's most traditional of past times. Would that celebrity be willing to take the regular flak from the often left-wing (and possibly there biggest fan base) argument that it is the sport of the rich killing the defenseless for pleasure? I might conclude not.
What if our brand champion wasn't quite as big as The Rock. What if that brand champion wasn't just one person? Perhaps the author does have the right idea of getting a group of people (in this case, UK women of 18+) to start taking up the sport and championing it's cause....
Then again, would we get a Palin effect? Great ideas, great image, great to start off with, but will it just wither out over time very rapidly? Would our brand champion/champions fit the 'Keen & Clean' part of our equation? Again, I may argue not.
We might find, therefore, that brand champions for shooting are a no-no. Perhaps having pictures of women holding guns is the way forward for the sport. Political Parties may be the stopping point for celebrities to publicly endorse without too much flak.
One thing is for certain: for the great sport to survive the next ten years, it needs to get more supporters. How to do that without celebrity endorsement?: another blogpost for another day.
Posts
With this, here highlights the classic dilemma highlighted by Winston Churchill. The USA and UK are divided by a common language. Whilst Sarah Palin appealed to the religious right in America, over here, she may be viewed as a religious nut.
ReplyDeleteHaving pondered this, I feel that it may be due to the fact that on the continent of America, with it's wide open spaces, relatively sparse population, and the extremes of weather, I feel leads them to a greater belief in the Almighty, more than our own benign climate allows us. I think the only communities that it manifests itself, are those that are close to danger regulalrly - deep sea fishermen, pilots, firememn, who all look danger in the whites of it's eyes, and finds their dark places in their soul where our deepest fear, the fear of death, lurks.
As expected Cherie Blair stares into the face of political correctness, and blinks.
The Rock, as ever, a great role model for all out there.
Ollie,
ReplyDeleteStill having an enjoyable read of your posts as usual - you have been busy!
Again, keep up with the good work or shall I say blogging.
Sarah X
I am not very good equations... Are you advocating shooting Conservatives or shooting Sarah Palin?
ReplyDeleteBoth would be good!
ReplyDelete