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Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
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Phelps mess renews role model debate
Source: Agencies |
February 4, 2009, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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A YOUNG man appears to be smoking pot at a party. Big deal, right? The new US president has freely admitted doing just that in his youth - inhaling, too - and it didn't derail him one bit. So should we expect more of Michael Phelps?
It depends on what we want and expect our youthful role models to be: perfect, or flawed like the rest of us.
And so as the Olympic swimmer's many corporate sponsors were wrestling with their options on Monday, a day after an embarrassing photo emerged of the decorated athlete appearing to inhale from a bong, some were looking at the bright side.
"We should grab this moment," said Lisa Bain, executive editor of Parenting magazine. "It's a good opportunity to talk to your kids about role models. They're human. They're not gods."
To her and to many others, there's no question that Phelps is a role model for young kids, as opposed to, say, a mere celebrity endorser. Only role models appear on Kellogg's cereal boxes, for example. And that complicates the problems for this young man, whose journey to eight gold medals in Beijing last year captivated the world.
"Breakfast cereal - that's really speaking to kids between 6 and 12," said Marian Salzman, known as a trendspotter in the advertising industry. "He has big, important deals, in a terrible economy. This is just wacky."
But that doesn't mean the 23-year-old doesn't deserve a break, says Salzman, chief marketing officer of the Porter Novelli PR firm. "He's probably a nice boy who didn't get enough guidance," she said - especially after a drunken driving arrest following the 2004 Olympics. "I think he accomplished that huge dream in Beijing, and then his people just relaxed."
Of course, smoking pot is not nearly as serious as endangering lives on the road. Indeed, perceptions of marijuana use have changed.
In 1992, candidate Bill Clinton admitted he'd tried it as a student in England and, famously, didn't inhale. Fast forward to 2006, when Barack Obama said: "I inhaled frequently. That was the point."
Still, as Bain points out, "No matter what we may have done in our youth, you can't be saying to kids that it's not so bad. First, it's illegal. And, it can lead people to make bad choices."
It depends on what we want and expect our youthful role models to be: perfect, or flawed like the rest of us.
And so as the Olympic swimmer's many corporate sponsors were wrestling with their options on Monday, a day after an embarrassing photo emerged of the decorated athlete appearing to inhale from a bong, some were looking at the bright side.
"We should grab this moment," said Lisa Bain, executive editor of Parenting magazine. "It's a good opportunity to talk to your kids about role models. They're human. They're not gods."
To her and to many others, there's no question that Phelps is a role model for young kids, as opposed to, say, a mere celebrity endorser. Only role models appear on Kellogg's cereal boxes, for example. And that complicates the problems for this young man, whose journey to eight gold medals in Beijing last year captivated the world.
"Breakfast cereal - that's really speaking to kids between 6 and 12," said Marian Salzman, known as a trendspotter in the advertising industry. "He has big, important deals, in a terrible economy. This is just wacky."
But that doesn't mean the 23-year-old doesn't deserve a break, says Salzman, chief marketing officer of the Porter Novelli PR firm. "He's probably a nice boy who didn't get enough guidance," she said - especially after a drunken driving arrest following the 2004 Olympics. "I think he accomplished that huge dream in Beijing, and then his people just relaxed."
Of course, smoking pot is not nearly as serious as endangering lives on the road. Indeed, perceptions of marijuana use have changed.
In 1992, candidate Bill Clinton admitted he'd tried it as a student in England and, famously, didn't inhale. Fast forward to 2006, when Barack Obama said: "I inhaled frequently. That was the point."
Still, as Bain points out, "No matter what we may have done in our youth, you can't be saying to kids that it's not so bad. First, it's illegal. And, it can lead people to make bad choices."
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