A Larger Than Life Experience: Sports in America and Europe

Over the past couple of decades, sports have increased dramatically in popularity and have become an astoundingly strong revenue source for media conglomerates. Specifically, in the United States, ESPN (owned by Disney) has capitalized on the popularity of football. By gaining the rights to most college football games, they are earning themselves millions of dollars per contest. Comparatively, media stations in Great Britain have done the same with the sport of soccer. Much of this success comes from heavy and strategic advertising, often depicting the games as more than just sporting events.


Yet, as popular as both sports are in their respective nations, demassification has occurred. Instead of focusing on sports enthusiasts as a whole, the media has chosen to target a somewhat niche audience that can understand and gravitate to the importance of the sporting event. In Hegemonic Masculinity and Globalization:‘Transnational Business Masculinities’ and Beyond, Juanita Elias and Christine Beasley examine the impact of globalization from transnational businesses on men and women around the world. They note that businesses, including the media, have demassified, focusing on hegemonic masculine audiences.This seems to be congruent with the tactics employed by ESPN when advertising their college football games.

In this case, ESPN has demassified, utilizing “College GameDay” to target a niche football audience. The commercial glorifies the event in a gladiator type manner. It conveys the sense that only the strong, who are mentally and physically prepared to begin the season along with the two football teams, should watch the event.

The demassification is also vivid in this commercial for the Barclays Premier League. 

The league encompasses teams throughout Great Britain, and the advertisement targets the niche audience of those who follow one of those select teams. Specifically, the advertisement is thanking it’s already acquired fans, and although the commercial seems to focus on those who attend the game, it is assumed that they are communicating to all of their customers (television viewers, merchandise consumers, etc.).

Although both advertisements are for entertainment purposes, they also convey persuasion. Both are persuading the viewer to take part in something bigger than them by making a life decision to “become part of the team and the experience.”


For More, Go To The Following Sources
Demassification
Hegemony and Masculinity
NY Times ESPN College Football Revenue