It's Good ta Be Mice Elf When You're Michael Phelps
Hey, look which professional athlete is in a new advertising campaign urging consumers to "Be Yourself" while grooving to Sly Stone and watching a contestant swim through a psychedelic bubble bath on a Japanese game show!
Comments the L.A. Times' Dan Neil:
Culture deconstructionists will pick the spot apart for oblique references to the scandal. Phelps' chin whiskers are kind of bro-ish, for instance. He does look a trifle baked (could be the chlorine). AdWeek's Eleftheria Parpis wrote that "you can almost hear all the blunts lighting up in support as Sly & The Family Stone's 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)' kicks in."
And it really is too bad that the sandwich franchise's website is subwayfreshbuzz.com.
Even so, the Phelps-bong scandal seems to have been safely put to bed, and now that it has, it's worth asking, what have we learned? The consequences to Phelps -- actually, the lack of consequences -- suggest that something bigger than mere endorsement dollars is in play. It seems Phelps has moved the weed needle.
I made a similar argument in the June issue. And just after Phelps got photographed taking a bong rip this winter, Radley Balko wrote about "What Michael Phelps should have said."
