I thought I’ve seen and heard it all when it comes to businesses asking artists to work for exposure. But a regular reader (thanks Gary) just passed along one I couldn’t resist.
The NFL (they’re barely scraping by financially) has asked their potential half time artists to actually PAY to perform at the Super Bowl. Apparently given the ammount of exposure the Super Bowl provides, artists have performed for free in the past. But now we’ve gone a step further…..
While notifying the artists’ camps of their candidacy, league representatives also asked at least some of the acts if they would be willing to contribute a portion of their post-Super Bowl tour income to the league, or if they would make some other type of financial contribution, in exchange for the halftime gig.
I understand it’s hard to make ends meet at the NFL. I mean no advertisers, no sponsors, and folks are barely following football these days. I’m surprised they haven’t gone the crowd funding route (dig on myself there)….. They’ve got these vocal artists who are making good money, and the half time show generates a ton of exposure (isn’t that when everyone goes to the bathroom and resupplies chips), so I could see asking folks who are doing a job for you to pay for the priveledge of doing the job.
Let’s see…. The biggest advertising day out there every year. Millions spent on short ads on TV right? Half the folks watching the Super Bowl watch for those ads. Players who make more money than most of the population (what was the 1% vs 99% thing again?) So yes, I’m beginning to understand why an artist should pay to play.
You know what could really help the NFL? All the football players themselves are making bank. Maybe if they donated their daily earnings on Super Bowl Sunday it could help out the league. I mean the players are getting exposure and making sponsorship deals due to their exposure as well…..right?
Today’s image is of a favorite moose from back in 2003. And even the moose is shocked by this one, see the expression on her face?