July 20, 2008
Well…that certainly was quick.
Ashley Harkleroad, America’s new sweetheart sports superstar 23 year old tennis player, had her playboy pictorial come out at the end of last week (the pictures are obviously NSFW). And while there seemed to be much fan-fare in the sports blogging world about her pictorial, mainstream media and mainstream sports media didn’t really pay that much attention.
As a matter of fact, if you google “Ashley Harkleroad” these are the news results that you receive, only one article, by The Sporting News, that even mentions Ms. Harkleroad after word of the story initally broke in May. So what can be gleaned from this situation? The initial purpose of this whole photoshoot (besides money and whatever self-empowerment it gave to Harkleroad) was publicity; putting the #72 ranked women’s tennis player in the national spotlight. Sure, it wasn’t going to increase her tennis abilities, but it could always lead to endorsements or sponsorship…Hell, Anna Kournikova wasn’t good at tennis and she had a K-Swiss commercial years after she retired. Amanda Beard posed for playboy last year, and she turned it into an FHM shoot and a deal with Go Daddy. Maybe Harkleroad does need to go to the Olympics after all, to garner some exposure for herself.
From a sports agency/representation and marketing stand point, this seems to be a very interesting case study. Athlete uses the oldest trick in the book; namely, taking her clothes off, to garner some attention (like I said before, all self-empowerment issues aside), and by the time we get from the announcement to the actual pictures…no one cares. So, what went wrong? She’s certainly attractive enough, she managed to be mentioned in every major media outlet back in May, she’s arguably the biggest sports star to ever pose nude while still playing her sport…What gives?
Marketing majors, sports agents, and general geniuses…Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Sports Business Digest: Ashley Harkleroad, first Tennis Star in Playboy…Good or Bad?
5 comments
VERY, VERY good.
The reason that it isn’t getting as much traction as one may originally think is because, as you said, she is not a pioneer in posing for Playboy. Beard stole the show by being the first. Harkleroad is merely a follower. If you want to get your name in the paper these days, you have to be Gilbert Arenas, who was a trendsetter in having a blog or pull a Chris Bosh who had a brilliant video campaign to become an All Star.
@Darren Amanda Beard wasn’t the first. She was following footsteps as well. What helps is if you already have some semblance of publicity prior, so that when people hear about the story, they recognize the name and are interested to see the pictorial. That’s the reason why Playboy pays those gobs of money to have celebrities pose.
I think it’s just now seen as less of a newsworthy item if a female athlete poses for Playboy since it’s been done before. Also she wasn’t very well-known before the article, like you said.
Anna Kournikova is one of the sexiest russian tennis players i have ever seen. Russian tennis players are really pretty eh.`-:
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