Jesse James Is A Bad Boy

Posted by Pinky on Apr 8, 2010 in Blog | 1 comment

Let’s call this “part two” in a three-part series on celebrity brand management, beginning with Tuesday’s post about Tiger Woods and Brett Favre.  The premise there was that Tiger’s stock had fallen to near-zero after news of his whorish ways broke wide-open in Florida and ricocheted around the world like so many golf-balls off Weeping Willow Trees at Augusta.  (Nice metaphor, eh?)  HOWEVER!  Tiger is the best athlete ever to play the sport, has confessed his sins and will be welcomed back into the fold if only he can continue to dominate the game as he always has.  And I believe he will.  The defining term for his brand going forward should be “Perseverance.”  Can’t you just see the Nike ad 2 years from now?

But what if you’re Jesse James?  Did we really believe that a chopper-building, tattoo-covered, ex-husband-of-a-stripper was really the family-man we all assumed Sandra Bullock had turned him into?  HECK NO WE DIDN’T!  (And if you did, I’m really sorry but we probably can’t be friends anymore.)

News Flash: Sandra Bullock likes bad boys.  Good girls always do.  (Sadly for her, I’m betrothed.  She had her chance.)

I do believe that Jesse has been devastated by his actions catching up with him on this one, but let’s forget about mushy feelings and love and pixie-dust, and get down to business.  What does this do to his brand?

It makes him a REALLY bad boy, and that works just fine when you’re in the business of selling bad boy toys.  His mistress was a Nazi-clad webcam hooker… I mean, COME ON!  Way to go, Jesse!  Assuming he survives this ordeal (and I’ve got 1-in-4 odds he drinks himself to death over this), he’s going to be a true mascot for the ‘live fast and die young’ crowd that is already the most likely to risk life and limb for the thrill of the ride… literally.  So I think he’ll be just fine as far as West Coast Choppers is concerned.

I’ll stop short of saying that he should take a fast ride around Dead Man’s Curve if he wants to become a true legend in field, but it probably wouldn’t hurt.

The point is this.  Affairs with nasty women are only shocking when you have a “clean image.”  It would be just as shocking to learn that Marylin Manson had been privately donating 10% of his proceeds to Pat Robertson’s church for the last 10 years… or voting Republican. (THE HORROR!)  It’s irony, folks.  That’s why they call it that.

In Tiger’s case, he’s “correcting his course” and playing the family man role once again.  In Jesse’s, we’re calling his bluff and he can go back to being himself.  And as for Sandra… well… maybe John Mayer’s not doing anything next weekend.