Saturday, September 24, 2011

Doomed from Day One

In honor of the Dube/Wolfe international season debut, and I can't wait for video:

That was a spectacular start for a pairs team that has only been skating together about six or seven months. Did they fall? NO! Could YOU do better? Hah! Could other, less experienced, less credentialed pairs teams, some of them juniors, who have been skating together even less time do better?

Let's change the subject!

Some believe all the attention paid to Scott/Jessica is proof fans have an unseemly and persistent interest in VM's private life.

I disagree. I think it's Jessica.

Faking a relationship to this extent is ridiculous; faking one at all shouldn't have been the go to, but as faking was the route chosen, suppose the sham was this:
Scott and hypothetical pretend fake girlfriend No. 1
STEPHANIE: His coach? That's Scott Moir's girlfriend? 
MISTY: Yep.
STEPHANIE: She's older than his mother.
MISTY: It's really common in figure skating. Girls get with their coaches too.
STEPHANIE: She's nice-looking but come on.
MISTY: Yep.
STEPHANIE: I guess that explains how come he's not dating Tessa!

Or this:
"Scott" and hypothetical pretend fake girlfriend No. 2
STEPHANIE: Is that the girlfriend?
MISTY: Yeah - that's her.
STEPHANIE: I thought he was with Tessa.
MISTY: No he's with her - that's Tanith. 
STEPHANIE: Oh.
MISTY: She's pretty.
STEPHANIE: Yeah.
But, whether it's this:

This:

  Or even this:

STEPHANIE: OMG something is wrong with him! Why isn't he with Tessa?
MISTY: I don't know - maybe Tessa's gay! Maybe he's in love with Tessa but Tessa's gay or bi and he's so miserable he just doesn't care about anything!
STEPHANIE: Or Tessa is more sophisticated than he is and thinks he's too immature!
MISTY: Or Tessa broke his heart and he's acting out with Jessica but he's really trying to punish himself because he blames himself for driving Tessa away! Maybe the explanation could be that the best way to punish himself is to be with Jessica because men do things like that!
STEPHANIE: That's true but I hate Tessa she needs to stop dating whoever and come and rescue Scott! I know she could love him!
MISTY: Me too I know she could love him she has to give him a chance! He is obviously crazy in love with her it's so obvious in every picture!
STEPHANIE: I know it's weird because I don't know them really but I just want to cry!
MISTY: Don't laugh but I want to throw up - I'm serious.
STEPHANIE: I won't I want to throw up too.
MISTY: Do you think Scott could be gay? and he doesn't know it yet or he's trying to prove to himself he's not? And that's why he's with Jessica? But she's in Quebec so he doesn't have to deal with it all the time?
STEPHANIE: I hate to say it but that could be a real thought.

Followed by this:
And ad infinitum:
Place a neutral image of Scott Moir next to an image of Tessa Virtue and immediately the image projects that Scott is thinking about Tessa Virtue, affected by Tessa Virtue, excited and relaxed because Tessa is near, or distracted because he wants to jump Tessa Virtue.

The same neutral image of Scott vis a vis ordinary people - family, friends, skaters, fans -  projects an ordinary, regular guy impression.

Place the image next to Jessica Dube, it screams "mayday". Fans feel it and stress out.

P.S.  Scott, specifically, seems afflicted with a Jessica allergy - like she's kryptonite and exposure will destroy him. Even when he smiles like his life depends upon it, he never projects a genuine sense of comfort.  Jessica appears to sense it. It's one of those things you notice even more when it's NOT there.  Check out Jessica's level of comfort with men NOT her fake boyfriend from Olympics 2010:

I have a photo of me and every female in the Village!
"I can smile all day long! I'm going to get engaged to Anabel soon and everybody can know about it!"
Jessica and Bryce, Olympics 2010.

29 comments:

  1. "STEPHANIE: I hate to say it but that could be a real thought."

    LOL. So fantastic.

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  2. The sheer amount of pictures these guys put out, from the supposedly "private" Scott, is grotesque. Like pushing the "on" button and not knowing how to make it stop.

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  3. Fans will go to all kinds of ridiculous lengths to explain why Tessa and Scott act the way they do. Oh, their coaches "ship them" (that's such a dumb term), or Tessa and Scott can't see they're in love with each other but of course they probably are. ALL THE FANS can see it even though these two skaters can't see it, because they've always been so close their relationship is just so unique it can't be explained, and that means they don't understand their feelings for each other. So of course Scott has a girlfriend but he really doesn't love her, he loves Tessa he just doesn't know it, or how to act on it. Or, maybe Tessa is being more touchy-feely lately so I think that means she's falling for him, or might be more open to getting together, and maybe it will happen someday. Except if they get together that could mess up their working relationship, and maybe they know that so they aren't taking any chances."

    Good Lord, what world do some of these fans live in? A soap opera-ish, television world? Because that's where these kinds of situations commonly exist. Tessa and Scott can *say* whatever they want to about their relationship and paint it as being impossible for others to fully understand. It doesn't change the fact that they're blatantly lying about being together and keep bringing it up in the first place.

    Why fans will go out of their way to come up with a number of totally out there, soap opera-ish rationalizations for what they're seeing, but won't accept even the possibility that these skaters might be hiding their real relationship and lying to the fans about it, is beyond me. I guess maybe they don't want to feel stupid or admit that they were duped, so they try to find other ways to explain it. That's sad, because these fans are doing everything they can to give Tessa and Scott the benefit of the doubt, and they're being used and blamed for everything at the same time.

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  4. How does a team debuting in 6th get the mention in the title of a canadian article when ANOTHER Canadian team (Lawrence/Swiegers) "finished a bit stronger by taking fifth spot"?

    http://www.cbc.ca/sports/figureskating/story/2011/09/23/sp-figureskating-dube.html

    IMO: JD gets way too much credit when credit is not due.

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  5. Oh god, Jessica. What a trainwreck she and Sebastien are. I will never understand the amount of attention she gets. Yeah sure, she's a gorgeous skater but she just self destructs on the ice.

    I have yet to see a photo where Scott actually looks like he wants to be with Jessica. Disgusting.

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  6. Jessica doesn't self-destruct on the ice - she doesn't put in the kind of training necessary to supplement natural talent. For skating, Jessica has a great deal of natural talent. For the type of hard work it takes to perform consistently, she has no appetite, nor interest in trying new things or changing. If she ever switched coaches, her maintenance-only training habits would be the first thing addressed by the new coach and she'd go back to Quebec.

    I suspect Sebastien hasn't yet realized his job is to compensate a bit for Jessica on the ice, and she's scared, which makes her cautious. Sebastien is new to the senior scene - he's focusing on his own skating. Bryce was good at skating for both of them, in a sense.

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  7. I know Mirai Nagasu has a reputation as an inconsistent skater, but at least the girl is generally willing to accept the blame for her mistakes and failures. When she screws up, it's on her, and she owns up to it. When Frank Carroll calls her out in the press sometimes, she's like "yeah, he's right."

    Can you imagine if Jessica went to Frank for coaching? I don't think she'd last a day, and he wouldn't put up with excuses.

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  8. And despite Mirai's issues she is not the same skater she was in 2008. She's cleaned up her jump technique, she's gotten more powerful. She may have headcase issues, but she's progressing. Jessica is locked in time. She hasn't progressed as a skater in years and continues to make mistakes with the same choreography and elements done the same way she's done them forever. Good enough is good enough with her, but her muscle memory isn't there as much as it should, her training isn't as intense as it should be, and her conditioning isn't what it should be compared to the rest of the female pairs elite.

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  9. I don't understand the hate for Jessica Dube. Even if all this is true and Tessa and Scott really are a couple (which I don't believe) then they're the ones you guys should direct your anger toward.

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  10. As a reader of this blog I have never felt there is any Jessica-hate. As far as I can see, there's been an attempt to examine all the players involved in the blog's premise, which is that Scott and Tessa are together in real life and choose to hide it behind a fake relationship. Jessica is a major player and she comes with her own set of issues that, when looked at closely, prove to be one of the main problems with making this sham workable or believable. I don't see anything wrong with exposing all the players in all their foolisheness.

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  11. ^ When the "everybody knows DP and Tessa are together" poster left a comment here, I thought an interesting point was made about if Scott and Tessa were together, SC would milk it like a cow, squeeze it like the golden goose.

    Well, YEAH.

    And do Scott and Tessa want this - expecially Tessa, who is hypersensitive on things like that? Hell NO.

    Of course, that's not the choice, is it? Is the choice really - let Skate Canada whore out and market your real personal life, or else create a fake story about your relationship and market that, and a fake romantic life to validate your stories?

    FUCK no. That's not the choice.

    WHO arrived at these ideas, and how did so many people at Skate Canada accept them as given. Oh, we have no stars, says that marketing wizard, Mike Slipchuk. It's because the public doesn't "know" them well enough to get attached, he reasons. Ergo, market their personal stories and the public will become attached!

    And everybody, including the skaters - went, sure Mike! That's how it's done?

    ?? No second opinion? No consulting with actual sports marketing professionals - successful real ones, not b.s. ones? No looking back at the actual superstars to see if marketing their personal stories actually WAS a critical component of their popularity?

    I just can't believe the many idiot assumptions behind all this nonsense, assumptions lacking common sense made by people with a scary talent for missing the obvious, assumptions lacking marketing validity. Yet the skaters and their parents were like - guess you're right. Fake romance, here we come!

    Go back to the halcyon days of SC. How much of their personal lives did fans know about Canadian stars? Brian Orser? Kurt Browning? Brasseur & Eisler?

    Did SC go for the S&P model and that's it? The big train wreck of their star system, and use THAT as the guide?

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  12. If Dube & Wolfe continue in train wreck mode, and it becomes even less credible to support her "in the lifestyle" as you said was her goal a while ago, is there anyway SHE'd be the one to sell her story?

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  13. "Of course, that's not the choice, is it? Is the choice really - let Skate Canada whore out and market your real personal life, or else create a fake story about your relationship and market that, and a fake romantic life to validate your stories?

    FUCK no. That's not the choice.

    WHO arrived at these ideas, and how did so many people at Skate Canada accept them as given. Oh, we have no stars, says that marketing wizard, Mike Slipchuk. It's because the public doesn't "know" them well enough to get attached, he reasons. Ergo, market their personal stories and the public will become attached!"

    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

    The idea that it has to be one thing or the other (either SC pimps out the skaters' real relationship or they pimp out a fake one), is SO FUCKING BACKWARDS. Selling the skaters by emphasizing their personal lives is major mistake number one. Using S&P as any kind of PR and marketing model (if that is indeed the case here) is pathetic. An emphasis on skating sells tickets, not a marketing plan that revolves around these notions only:

    1. "Do you wonder if these two skaters are screwing each other? It seems like they should be, right? Don't you wish they were? Keep watching them and maybe they will eventually!"
    2. "Aren't they cute and Canadian?"
    3. "They overcame adversity."

    Unbelievable ineptitude on display. Congratulations SC, you suck so bad at this, it's almost unreal.

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  14. I cringe to think about the way SC might have marketed Joannie Rochette this year if she'd decided to skate competitively, given that they feel the need to emphasize the personal above all else.

    "Come see Joannie Rochette, the brave skater who overcame tragedy to win an Olympic bronze medal."

    And that would probably be it. No actual discussion of her as a skater (and she's a damn good one), her skating, or her competitive goals for the future. Probably just attempts to sell tickets based on her story of overcoming personal adversity at the Olympics. Because it's that personal stuff that keeps the public interested and attached for the long term, so says Slipchuk!

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  15. [If Dube & Wolfe continue in train wreck mode, and it becomes even less credible to support her "in the lifestyle" as you said was her goal a while ago, is there anyway SHE'd be the one to sell her story?]

    That's an interesting thought.

    I have the impression the Moirs, and SC, call most of the shots. Would Jessica realize she has a story to sell and/or would she dare?

    I think Jessica has benefited immensely from this public persona of the girlfriend of the Olympic champion. Not only just being linked to Scott, but that underlying perception that Scott prefers Jessica to his beautiful, charming, articulate partner. All I can think is that if she is the one to spill the beans - sells her story - it continues to keep her in the public eye and she does like that.

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  16. ^ I don't know about that. I think out of policy and expedience, a lot of people have been fairly diplomatic about Jessica and it's in her best interest not to burn bridges in Canadian figure skating. The situation is well known enough that they haven't, I don't believe, left themselves open for some he said she said situation.

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  17. "in her best interest to not burn bridges in Canadian figure skating"...... That's rich. Skate Canada has burned more bridges than any other figure skating federation in the world. From dragging the Sale/Pelletier Olympic Silver into the media in 2002 to basically declaring war on the Gay Community in 2009. Skate Canada dominates at burning bridges.

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  18. "(^ I don't know about that. I think out of policy and expedience, a lot of people have been fairly diplomatic about Jessica and it's in her best interest not to burn bridges in Canadian figure skating. The situation is well known enough that they haven't, I don't believe, left themselves open for some he said she said situation.)"

    I'm the Anon who mentioned Jessica selling her story. I agree that she wouldn't be able to get away with intimating that anything was really going between her and Scott. I was actually speculating about her taking the lead in exposing the situation. As in, "Thanks to me V/M were able stay private." Or, "The indignities I suffered as Scott's fake girlfriend." By attempting to have some control over any exposure, she could - perhaps - be in a better position than if she ends up just being the dumb girl who agreed to this in the first place.

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  19. "Go back to the halcyon days of SC. How much of their personal lives did fans know about Canadian stars? Brian Orser? Kurt Browning? Brasseur & Eisler?"

    Quite a lot, actually. Both Orser and Browning published autobiographies that sold quite well, and B&E published not one, but TWO autobiographies. Orser and B&E published their first books very shortly after turning pro and Browning published his BEFORE turning pro, and published an updated second addition after his comeback season in 1993. Orser's book obviously did not include details about his romantic relationships, as he was not out then, but B&E's autobiographies, especially the second one, were quite tell-all and focused quite a lot on their relationship (both platonic and romantic periods) with each other, as well as the many other romantic entanglements each had when they weren't together. Browning's autobiography also included details about both his long-time girlfriends - Monique Kavalaars and obviously his eventual wife, Sonia Rodriguez.

    And published "official" material aside, fans of Browning and B&E could easily find out about their personal lives from both skating community gossip and the mass media in a time when the Internet was still a secondary source of information. Same thing with Bourne & Kraatz in their early days.

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  20. Let me make my meaning clearer for you, last anon, by defining fans as the general public interested enough in figure skating to buy a ticket in sufficient number to fill arenas or watch it on television to produce high ratings. "Fans" as in the target of a marketing program. THOSE fans.

    Fans who know "figure skating gossip" don't need a marketing scheme. They're already in the tank! Fans who want to look it up also don't need fan outreach - they're groupies in training!

    What a figure skater had done in the past for self-promotion after turning pro is irrelvant to the marketing game plan of a figure skating federation with the goal of attracting sponsors, selling tickets to eligible competitions, and getting enough people to tune in so ratings are strong.

    If Browning wrote a biography before he turned pro, this must mean he was sufficiently popular to get a book contract and have people purchase it BEFORE he wrote the biography. He wasn't an unknown, useless as a box office draw, but as a little-known skater, produced an autobiography and it sold. He was ALREADY a star. He capitalized on his existing stardom by writing an autobiography. It wasn't how he became one! It wasn't how Skate Canada got people to watch his skating!

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  21. That's because Skate Canada, then the CFSA, didn't HAVE marketing schemes. They were a figure skating federation that spent their time on the basics of figure skating (CanSkate programs, level tests, coaching training, etc.) and let their skaters and their SKATING sell itself. And since Browning, B&E, etc. existed in the heyday of skating (esp. after the Tonya/Nancy scandal gave the sport a selling point in and of itself), that anti-marketing scheme worked.

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  22. Anon up above about Jessica -

    Most of the Jessica stuff is aimed at fans online. I know for a fact that a lot of the photo spams are/were completely missed by at least some people in the media who know VM are together. Unlike fans, they know the deal but they're not plugged into the facebooks watching each rollout. If Jessica wanted to sell her story she'd have to be like, well, see, I was never mainstream, but on facebooks I posed for a lot of fake photos with Scott - here are some of them - and that's how they were able to stay secret.

    I don't see a book there. Maybe an article in some French-Canadian outlet.

    Her pattern has been to put on a good face - she presents opposite of her temperment a lot of the time, so I don't see her marketing herself as someone who was a puppet on VM's string. That would be an affront to self-image and dignity.

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  23. "That's because Skate Canada, then the CFSA, didn't HAVE marketing schemes. They were a figure skating federation that spent their time on the basics of figure skating (CanSkate programs, level tests, coaching training, etc.) and let their skaters and their SKATING sell itself. And since Browning, B&E, etc. existed in the heyday of skating (esp. after the Tonya/Nancy scandal gave the sport a selling point in and of itself), that anti-marketing scheme worked. "

    Well, the current USFSA seems to have looked back and learned from that time period. Yes, they are doing concerted sponsorship development behind the scenes - that's obvious.

    But even though we are NOT in the "heyday of skating" it's using and succeeding with lot of what worked then - letting the skating speak for itself and putting their skaters out there physically but almost always about figure skating - virtually, but physically, which is way more important than putting a story out there. They have a skater blog from Nebelhorn, when that competition is running it leads the news with photos, they have stories every day on a web page whose layout is very user-friendly and attractive and FOCUSED on figure skaters.

    There's lots of exposure (look at the difference between HOW the Champs Camp photos were tweeted from the skaters and USFSA and how they were tweeted from "SC" and then shared via Above the Crowd). And look at Maia and Alex's hilarious video on how to do a one-armed lift. I don't know who directed it, whose idea it was, who was behind the camera. I only saw them. The general reaction was OMG - Maia and Alex are adorable! Was it personal? No. It was "how to do a one-armed lift" - it quite seriously showed us how to do it - but with plenty of humor and a wink, so we felt like we'd spent time with them, got to know their personalities - in a skating-centric context.

    Patrick Chan actually has done some good stuff on his own. His video vignettes from the Olympics and Worlds, for example. Nothing personal, just sharing the environment and a bit of the experience of being there. This stuff should be on Skate buzz.

    We get so see a lot of the skaters and be in their company and like them, but it's not autobiography-driven. It's not driven by public self-analysis.

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  24. Skate Canada's skaters are fenced off, physically. There's Debbi or PJ or some other on camera buffer waxing heavy handed, being much more of a presence than happens with the USFSA. THEY talk to the skaters, the skaters talk to THEM, then THEY talk to us.

    They release some "backstage pass" and it's a tightly edited clip of mundane video scored to something boring, using the skaters as bait to push the Skate Canada logo in our faces, shutting us out of the feeling of accessibility.

    Scott and Tessa did a Scotch Tape spot last year in LA. So did Tanith. I think it was a one off for the hand-dispenser. Tessa sat and chatted about what she liked about it - the different colors and that it could almost be an accessory. Then we saw Tessa and Scott twinkling, smiling and glowing, cooperating together as they sliced up some gift wrap, wrapped up a "present" and taped it, then presented it to Marina. It was adorable, and we spent time with them as they interacted. What was it about? TAPE. Who cares. This is the sort of thing the USFSA does all the time. The skaters are protected, nobody has to Oprah-fy for the fans. They do, however, let the skaters become a familiar face, voice and presence - just by spending the TIME and not throwing USFSA bodies - or the USFSA brand - between the skaters and the audience.

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  25. Finally - if you are so famous and popular as a figure skater that you write an autobiography - in some cases, not one, but TWO - kudos to you. That's a lot of fame and popularity for Canadian skaters back then. How did they become popular in the first place, btw?

    You don't write an autobiography in order to become famous and popular as a figure skater.

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  26. Are you sure the Scotch tape spot had anything to do with LA? It aired during Shall We Dance On Ice, which I believe was filmed in Hamilton, Ontario.

    Nitpicking, but that wasn't an effective US thing so much as an effective Disson thing.

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  27. It was from Shall We Dance On Ice. And regardless, Disson is quite tied to the USFSA. In fact, they just announced this earlier this month:

    http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110906&content_id=24298600&vkey=ice_pressrelease

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  28. The Scotch tape spot is a great example of TYPE of thing the USFSA does, because the USFSA understands effective marketing. No Debbi, no PJ, no SC branding message disguised as a 'Backstage Pass' bait and switch. It's one of the few times Tessa and Scott have been able to participate in a well-done spot. It's pathetic because it's one of the most basic ways of getting someone known and is done routinely by operations that know what they're doing.

    Athletes become familiar faces, personalities - how? Because we spend time with them. The access isn't rigidly rationed out, anal-retentively controlled, baited and switched. And yet, in spending time with the athletes, the focus is not on the athlete, but on something else. Scotch tape, tap water (U of M), a one-armed lift, an eye-catching credit card commercial. Not an Oprah-fied "us" and "me" unless it's "our skating" or "my skating" or a universal topic such as "what was your summer guilty pleasure" that the USFSA did at Champs Camp - not my favorite question (neither was 'what is the most overplayed song at the rink") - but it relaxes the skaters and the question isn't really the point - it's so we get face time and they become familiar, comfortable to us. It's very inclusive, it makes the skaters' accessible. We could have "talking skate dresses with Tessa Virtue" and she could show us how they're made, what makes a good skate dress function well, she could interview a skate dress designer and ask what's popular or what trends are - a short one minute spot. Or ask other skaters what they look for or prefer when they get a new skate dress.

    We're spending time with her. This is how connections are made with fans. Not the personal stories. They "know" the skaters by sharing an experience with them - and a good fan outreach campaign knows what experiences should be shared or can think them up.

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