From sports drinks and sneakers to televisions and cable
service, companies often choose athletes to promote their products. Why not capitalize on the opportunity
to associate a product or service with an athlete who has a built-in following
of thousands or millions of people?
However, choosing an athlete to promote a product can have its
issues. Some athletes can be
dynamic on-screen talents. Others
not so much. Think of Peyton
Manning vs. Eli Manning. Peyton is
charismatic and likeable as he explains how to throw a
football for Gatorade, shows off NFL
Sunday Ticket for DIRECTV, and cheers on the local butcher
to “cut that meat” for Mastercard.
A recent Samsung
commercial is just one example of Peyton’s brother falling short. The words stiff and awkward come to
mind when describing Eli’s performance.
What can a producer do to make an athlete look and sound
better on screen? The first thing
is to tell the athlete to act natural and speak as they normally would. The goal is for the athlete to be
conversational, as opposed to the monotone delivery we often see. If the athlete still sounds like a
robot, you can tell him or her to pay attention to the enunciation of certain
words, which will hopefully create some vocal variety. The important thing to know is with the
right direction, athletes can improve as television personalities. While part of on-screen performance comes
from natural ability, experience and comfort in front of the camera will
greatly improve the sound and look of these athletes in advertisements.
By:
Alex Campbell
Fall 2011 Intern
University of Delaware, Communication
