The Art of Tennis Advertising

The above heading is my spin on The Art of Tennis, a title already taken by art writer-turned-tennis blogger, Michael Kimmelman (better known as the NY Times‘ chief art critic). As I previously noted, my potshots at art-PR people (here and here) might necessitate a career switch to tennis reporting, so here’s a dispatch from my new beat!
The rapid and predictable departure of Kimmelman’s athlete-of-choice, Martina Hingis, from the U.S. Open evokes painful memories of last year’s early exit of Andy Roddick, whose face, during the entire run of the tournament, was ignominiously plastered all over the National Tennis Center’s grounds, in giant American Express ads vaunting the “mojo” that had utterly deserted him.
Just before the current Open opened, Hingis’ return to the court was ballyhooed in another NY Times article as “one of the greatest comebacks of all time in sports”—not by a tennis expert, but by the head of global sports marketing for Adidas, the company with which Hingis has an endorsement deal. Clearly, an objective source.
And last Friday, American Express took another losing stance in the tennis ad court with a full-page, color newspaper spread for the U.S. Open that included two action photos of Roddick and one of Venus Williams. Someone must have neglected to tell Amex that the injured Venus is not even playing this year.
All of which leads to my evidence-based conclusion that vainglorious advertising hype is a tennis menace. Will the sport’s latest minx succumb to this jinx?
And, while we’re on this subject: Will someone please pay adequate homage to the real-deal Martina, the great Navratilova, who may now be in her last U.S. Open?