Examining Committee

University of Alberta Selling “The Next One”: Corporate Nationalism and the Production of Sidney Crosby by Darron Bunt A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation ©Darron Bunt Fall 2009 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Examining Committee Jay Scherer, Physical Education and Recreation Lisa McDermott, Physical Education and Recreation Dave Whitson, Political Science Abstract Sporting celebrities have come to hold an increasingly vaunted position within contemporary society and as such, receive ever-increasing media attention. Within Canadian culture, where the sport of hockey is largely considered a mythologized component of identity, hockey players – such as the National Hockey League’s Sidney Crosby – are not only frequently represented in the daily media, but are also utilized in promotional and advertising campaigns. In this thesis, I qualitatively analyze media representations and the production of advertising featuring Sidney Crosby. Specifically, I examine the specific case of producing televised advertising campaigns featuring Crosby for sports drink manufacturer Gatorade. I also interrogate the tensions and ambiguities of contemporary conceptualizations of masculinity evidenced in media discourse surrounding Crosby. Ultimately, this study examines how sporting celebrities and discourses of corporate nationalism are produced within contemporary advertising campaigns and the role that cultural intermediaries play in the promotion of particular values and perceptions. Acknowledgements First off, I need to thank my supervisor, Jay Scherer. Jay, thank you for everything. For your support, insight, and guidance, and for pushing me when I needed it. It has been great to have the opportunity to work with you. This project has been an adventure with many ups and downs, and there are so many people who have helped me to savour the high points and push through when things got tough. Thank you to my parents, Linda Mitchell and Bob Bunt, for always believing in me, no matter what. Thank you to Marlies Severyn, for being there every step of the way. Thanks to my cohort, for letting me vent, keeping me sane, and making me laugh. And many thanks to Suzanne Day, Nicholas Pike, and everyone else back home for their friendship, love and constant reminders that thousands of kilometres don’t stand in the way of having someone’s back whenever they need it. Finally, thanks to Rocket and Cannon, who never fail to make me laugh, and have somehow managed to not eat, chew, or otherwise destroy any part of my thesis. Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction……………………………………… 1 Hockey, Marketing and Sidney Crosby……………………………. 2 The Social Significance of Sidney Crosby………………………… 5 Research Questions………………………………………………… 9 Chapter Two: Literature Review……………………………….. 13 Capturing Production………………………………………………. 13 Producing Sport……………………………………………………. 20 Promotional Culture and the Canadian Context…………………… 29 Advertising and the Construction of Identity……………………… 35 Hockey, Canada and the Construction of Identity………………… 38 Chapter Three: Methodology…………………………………… 46 Semi-Structured Interviews: Capturing Production………………. 48 Critical Readings and Contextual Analysis………………………… 56 Chapter Four: Gatorade and the Production of Crosby………. 62 Relationships Constituting the Practice of Production……………… 65 Conditions of Production……………………………………………. 75 Components of the Product…………………………………………. 91 Chapter Five: Sidney Crosby and Changing Conceptualizations of Masculinity……………………………………………………….. 118 Hockey, Canada and the Construction of Masculinities…………….. 119 Sporting Celebrities and Metrosexuality……………………………. 126 Context: Crosby and Conflicting Notions of Masculinity………….. 131 Violence……………………………………………………………… 136 Resisting Change? Sidney Crosby and Don Cherry………………… 141 Appearance…………………………………………………………… 146 Producing Crosby/Producing Masculinity……………………………. 151 Chapter Six: Concluding Remarks……………………………….. 163 Future Recommendations…………………………………………….. 169 Appendix A: Interview Information……………………………… 173 Email Soliciting Interviewees……………………………………….. 173 Information Letter…………………………………………………… 174 Informed Consent Form……………………………………………… 176 Interview Guide: Downtown Partners’ Creative Director…………… 177 Interview Guide: Gatorade Marketing Manager…………………….. 181 Appendix B: Thick Description of Ads…………………………… 185 Sticks…………………………………………………………………. 185 What’s Inside…………………………………………………………. 187 League of Clutch……………………………………………………… 192 Narrator……………………………………………………………….. 194 References…………………………………………………………… 197 Chapter 1: Introduction With only few exceptions, the bulk of the critical research that examines advertising and sporting celebrities has been systematically biased in favour of textual analyses. While textual analyses provide important ideological readings in relation to identity politics, they cannot account for the complex and often contradictory processes of production. As Gruneau (1989) has asserted, “in the absence of detailed case studies…assessments of relationships between television sports ‘texts’ and their ‘contexts’ of production have been speculative at best” (p. 135). This study seeks to fill this void by engaging issues surrounding the production of contemporary televised advertisements featuring hockey star Sidney Crosby, arguably the most prominent contemporary Canadian sporting icon. In particular, this study aims to examine the complex discourse of corporate nationalism (Silk, Andrews & Cole, 2005) utilized in promotions that feature Crosby. Specifically, I will focus on the production of television commercials for sports drink manufacturer Gatorade, a transnational brand and corporation owned by Pepsi-QTG, the evolution of their advertising strategies and texts, and the manners in which they envision and utilize Crosby in the promotion of their products. In so doing, I evidence the importance of locating these advertisements in the conditions of their production. First, I will outline Sidney Crosby, his NHL career to date, and why he is an important individual worthy of academic examination. I will then outline the specific research questions that guide this thesis. 1 Hockey, Marketing and Sidney Crosby On June 7th, 2004, the NHL season culminated with the Tampa Bay Lightning’s defeat of the Calgary Flames in seven games to claim the epitomic symbol of Canadianness as it relates to hockey – the Stanley Cup. On September 15th, the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and its Players Association expired, resulting in the commencement of the second NHL lockout, which eventually wiped out the entire 2004-2005 season.1 With only lagging negotiations to anchor NHL coverage, media outlets were forced to find new sources of hockey news. One such source was Sidney Crosby’s impending NHL career. 2005 was to be Crosby’s draft year, and one of the primary concerns following the cancellation of the NHL season was that the lockout would cause the draft’s cancellation as well. When an agreement was reached on July 13 and ratified on July 22nd, the first order of business was the draft. Unlike previous years, where teams selected largely in the reverse order of where they finished the season,2 team owners successfully lobbied for an NHL-wide lottery for the first pick overall and the chance to select Sidney Crosby. This lottery (colloquially referred to as the “Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes”) was a televised event, shown across Canada on The Sports Network (TSN), and television crews provided live coverage of Crosby’s viewing of the event from his parents’ house in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. On July 30th at the 43rd annual NHL entry draft, Crosby 1 The first, which occurred during the 1994-1995 season, lasted 104 days and resulted in the shortening of that season from 82 games to 48. 2 The NHL employs a lottery system, where one of the 14 teams who did not make the playoffs may move up four positions in the draft. The team that finishes the season in last place has a 48.2% of retaining the first pick overall. 2 officially became the property of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and speculation of his role as the NHL’s saviour began in earnest. The significance of the lockout, its subsequent resolution, and the league’s fervent promotion of Sidney Crosby is twofold. First, there were the hopes, dreams, and expectations which were heaped upon an 18-year old who had not yet played a professional hockey game but who was nonetheless expected to be the face of the NHL and perform appropriately. Crosby – touted as The Next One – was expected to become just that, and to bring to the NHL the same type of excitement as Wayne Gretzky did at the pinnacle of his career. While NHL pundits have historically made lofty predictions regarding highly touted draft picks that

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