> A similar air of distanced curiousity for desaster and public humiliation > can be seen in the present coverage of the Olympics. Japanese athletes > are not doing very well, but instead of emphasizing the few medals they > win (in order to instill a little more of that fighting spirit), the > painful losses are shown over and over again. Certainly, humiliation and > exploitation plays a part in American/European/... TV, too, but on the > whole, I have come to think that American game-shows go for the winner > rather than the loser, whereas here, losers definitely get more air-time. > I am not sure how that can be related to violence/crime rates, but here > it is, anyway. > > Birgit Kellner > Department for Indian Philosophy > University of Hiroshima Has anyone seen the Nike "Air" commercials? They consist of dynamic montage of athletes under extreme stress and/or pain. There are close-ups of grimacing faces. There's a shot of a man spewing some kind of liquid out of his mouth. There are track athletes falling over steples. After a minute of these images the screen resolves to a solid color with the Nike trademark and the word "Air". That's it. Why would a sports shoe manufacturer take this direction for advertisement? It seems like the marketing people Nike hired for this is made up of sports haters. paul ryersbach ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]