Peyton's SNL Performance

Last night, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning hosted Saturday Night Live. After years of being entertained by his commercials, I was excited to see what he could do in front of a live audience. For someone who is not an actor by trade, he did pretty well. One of his funniest performances was in a mock commercial that spoofed the National Football League's United Way commercials, in which NFL stars are seen helping out in the community. In the SNL parody, Manning plays a game of football with a group of young kids. The comedy ensues as he verbally berates the children for not playing well enough and his passes knock the kids to the ground. He goes on to teach the kids "lessons" such as how to break into a car, and he hires a tattoo artist to tattoo his own face onto a young boy's leg. The skit was hilarious, but did the comedy come with a price? Manning is widely regarded as one of the NFL's "golden boys," a great role model and an ambassador for the league. The performance obviously was in jest, but the sight of Manning harassing children still might not sit well with some members of the public. These people might stop buying into Manning's squeaky-clean image. If I was Manning's publicist or one of the Colts' PR people, I would have been just a little bit nervous about this performance. You never know when an audience is going to take something too seriously.

Social Networking and Sports

The past few years have seen a dramatic increase in the popularity of social networking Web sites, such as facebook and MySpace. Sports organizations apparently took notice and have begun to create their own networks for fans. The National Basketball Association has developed Fan Voice (http://www.nba.com/fanvoice/index.html), which allows basketball fans to connect with each other. The league's Portland Trail Blazers have created their own site (http://iamatrailblazersfan.com/). As more and more people become engrossed in online social networking, these sites only will increase in number. By giving fans the chance to interact with each other and to feel that they truly are part of a community, organizations can generate positive feelings among their target audiences. One of the best things about this PR tactic is its low cost; Web sites can get messages across without eating up organizations' advertising budgets. Sports fans should jump at the chance to interact with their fellow die-hards, and this PR trend should continue for a long time.