So, the Tour de France starts (finally) tomorrow morning with the prologue in London and will be shown on Versus (the old OLN). It seems Versus has taken a bit of a different approach to advertising the tour this year here in the US after a serious drop off of viewers in the first post Armstrong race. As much as this Wall Street Journal article says this new direction is a bad thing I find it refreshing that someone is actually coming straight out and addressing the issues that all of the potential viewers are thinking and talking about anyway.
While baseball continues to try and ignore the never ending drug debates and conspiracies (including letting the ah Bonds keep playing to take over the all time HR record in the next few weeks) Versus is out there addressing the subject and trying to salvage what dignity they can from the taint. Don’t get me wrong, I would have and still will be watching as much of the tour as possible and I really don’t care about the drug scandal that much. (I care about the baseball scandal because I think Barry is a jerk and I just don’t think he should beat Hank Aaron for that record).
The way I see it is that it’s a shame that some of the greatest cyclists in the world today will be unable to compete in the premier cycling event because of this whole thing. (Though I also respect that in cycling something is being done about it unlike in baseball with jack a** Barry). As for the advertisement campaign, they’ve got nothing to lose since anyone who might be interested in watching the tour certainly knows about the “scandals” and most likely has their mind made up about whether they’re going to watch it already. If nothing this could be a little fresh breath of air for people seeing that the cyclists are signing an oath stating they won’t take anything during the tour. Granted a person’s word is only so strong but at least it’s a start.
5 comments:
I feel bad for all the non-dopers who worked so hard to get ready to compete. If they win, their credibility will be questioned.
I'm not familiar with their advertising because I don't normally watch Versus as I'm not much of a rodeo or fishing fan. Haha. I do plan to watch every stage I can though.
Do you have a favorite to win?
I agree entirely. Barry is a jerk and a doper - what the heck is baseball thinking?
Unfortunately, I think the answer lies with the amazing gullibility of the public. Baseball isn't doing anything about Barry, therefore it's not a big deal. Cycling is doing something, therefore doping is a big deal in cycling. Don't even get me started on Iraq, the 2004 election, or Armstrong . . . .
(Oh, gifts should be in the mail next week. I'll give you a heads up.)
I agree with you FW since no matter what this year there will be questions about anyone who does well. That said it is still so damn exciting!
What really kills me about versus is combining Ultimate Fighting with the Tour in the Tour commercials. I mean sure they're both about competitors putting each other through immense amounts of pain but c'mon!
I'd love to see Levi win though I don't think the french anti-doping agencies would take kindly to that. Not sayin... I'm just sayin.
That's so true about the reactions to the doping scandal. Unfortunately the american image of baseball could probably survive a huge crackdown in the doping scandal while cycling is a bit frail to say the least. The tour doesn't even garner a mention in the Yahoo news headlines this year not to mention the Post.
LOVE Gifts! :)
the home-run record has been tainted forever. If they used roids before this whole scandal, who can be sure....but we Know people did (even if it was by mistake in cream-cough barry cough bullshit cough-) and that screws up the whole thing.
If we know people cheated, then how can we allow them to continue in baseball at all, much less continue on a record that doesn't really mean anything? Basically, we should throw these people out of baseball and set the record back to what it was before these dopers came along.
Pete Rose was thrown out and is being kept out, for less. We have no record that he doped up his players but we have 100% proof that some of these players used performance-enhancing substances.
Hypocrites much!?
I can't say cycling is pure anymore either but oh well. Armstrong retired so I feel like the bar has been set back to zero anyway. Makes for a better tour = more competitive. -shrug- the baseball thing makes me so mad!
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