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continued
A few million men (if that) in one of the world's most
wired countries Down Under aren't enough to get the two words ranked that
highly by Lycos's search engines. Anna Kournikova is a global phenomenon,
her official site at kournikova.com narrowly below Lucire's own
ranking, according to Alexa.
The image this has given men—thanks also to appearing
on top-selling covers for FHM (last September, the American edition
shifted 475,000 copies as a result) and other titles—hasn't exactly
instilled pride amongst men any more than in one female sports columnist
who drew a correlation between cleavage and fame, with reference to Kournikova.
She has been boosted by the internet as much as Berlei sports bras. Online,
searching for credible information on the star is difficult, but finding
image galleries of her is easy. MSNBC asked in its
Live Vote, 'Will interest in Kournikova remain high if she never wins a
tournament?' 80 per cent of 90,941 respondents answered in the affirmative.
While she has finally received acclaim in sporting circles,
for winning the 2002 Australian Open women's doubles' title with Martina
Hingis (this had happened in 1999, too), commentators had focused on why
Kournikova had not won any WTA tournament or consistently
beaten the top 10 women on the tour. She has mustered semi-final wins, but
the Anna Kournikova phenomenon is about successful marketing.
Right now, the Kournikova PR machine
has informed us of a shoot where the tennis star "poses in paradise". Terra
Lycos has announced a competition where four people (the winner and three
friends) can meet Kournikova in an 'exotic secret location' for her 2003
calendar. The competition will be supported in the Sports Illustrated
swimsuit and Olympic preview editions and can be accessed at www.kournikova.com
or annak.lycos.com.
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It causes resentment against marketing and branding, and
against Kournikova herself. Supporters will say that she is simply making
use of her physical beauty to help her career. Even Rattue, in his column,
mentioned that ‘Kournikova has never been afraid to flaunt her looks,
all the way to the bank,’ and that she is an ‘ad-agency dream’.
Antagonists point out that there are better players who don't have her profile,
so something is wrong with how we rate people. The argument can be extended
to: why should community volunteers get no acclaim when athletes and actors
have legions of fans?
But the rise and rise of Anna Kournikova has a positive
side. continued
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The brand called you: Anna Kournikova endorses a
line of Berlei sports bras beneath her Adidas outfit
MSNBC asked in its Live Vote, 'Will interest
in Kournikova remain high if she never wins a tournament?' 80 per cent
of 90,941 respondents answered in the affirmative.
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