Policy

It's Good ta Be Mice Elf When You're Michael Phelps

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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."