| In a scene worthy of Punked, David Beckham, with the help of Ellen Degeneres, gets a massage. Beckham had a few specific requests prior to the massage. The first, call me Ricky. The second, let’s share our energy fields or something like that. Take a look. Pretty funny to see Beckham try to pull this off. And so far, over 11,800,784 people have watched this video on YouTube. I’m surprised Beckham hasn’t stared in a Hollywood movie yet, since he’s so popular not just in the soccer world.
In the age of Twitter and YouTube, where pictures and videos can immediately go viral in the blink of an eye, and what with the swirling media that encircles top athletes these days, it’s interesting to see many stars take control of and create their own news. Sometimes the news is fake or a parody of some kind, making fun of themselves, yet it still goes viral across the Internet. However, this time it’s not a story they don’t want shared, rather it’s one they were involved in creating. It’s sort of brand building. There are still stories for the media to tell, but now it seems like the athletes themselves often start those stories. The media just pushes them and takes a slightly different angle. Beckham’s LA Galaxy teammate, Landon Donovan, recently teamed up with NBA star Steve Nash for a series of clips about the new FIFA soccer video game. In the clips Nash acts like a obnoxious star, chasing Donovan around. Donovan has been very active on Twitter himself, and while Beckham has yet to Tweet, I’m guessing Becks will be on there soon or someone will Tweet for him. It’s just too easy now not to control your own message and story. Or at least try to control it a little bit. |