7mo ago

Flavor Flav sponsors the American women's water polo team

In May, US polo team captain Maggie Steffens asked for financial help on Instagram. Flavor Flav – William Jonathan Drayton Jr – answered the call: “As a girl dad and supporter of all women’s sports, imma personally sponsor you, my girl, whatever you need. And imma sponsor the whole team.”

Flav signed a five-year sponsorship deal to “elevate the visibility and excitement surrounding water polo in the United States.” The sponsorship includes personal appearances and financial contributions to help with equipment, facilities, and anything else they need. This is how it’s done 👏

— The Female Quotient

9 comments

On the surface it's a generic feelgood story. And I don't at all begrudge it that. It does genuinely seem like he's excited to do this because it's a good thing, and the team deserves it.
But I don't love what this represents. I hate the idea that elite sports should only be able to be funded by wealthy individuals who decide they want to fund it. Those individuals can pull the funding for any reason.
In Australia we've recently had a situation where billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart had a portrait of her that she wanted removed from the National Gallery. Picture included below, because fuck her.
A number of Australia's elite swimmers wrote letters saying the portrait should be removed, because she is the largest sponsor of our swimming team. That's just not right. She shouldn't have that kind of leverage over them.
- I get what you are saying, but normally the sponsor is not a personal brand or literally personal, but companies. Apparently (visible) sports without extra hussle on the side is... Impossible?
  Taking that I to account, I'd rather have persons behind sponsorships then companies.
- Can’t imagine why she’d want the portrait removed.
  
  First and foremost: that's not the point. Maybe she doesn't like it. Too bad. It's an award-winning artist's artwork. She shouldn't be allowed to bully a gallery into not showing it, and she shouldn't be making elite athletes weigh in on the matter in her favour. That just makes it clear her sponsorships are not really about giving back, they're a political means to an ends. It's sportswashing.
  But also, that's just the style of the Archibald Prize–winning artist who painted it. By whinging about how it's a misrepresentation of her, and having her supporters say such nonsense as:
  Not only is it seriously misleading, but also extremely misrepresenting and can come across as making fun of one of the most influential and important people in Australia. Mrs Rinehart has done nothing to deserve such treatment, and one can argue that the portraits should be taken down and redone immediately.
  She is demonstrating a complete lack of respect for the artist and his work. Never mind that she absolutely would deserve the treatment if it were a targeted attack on her. She's wilfully contributed to destroying the planet and making it easier for others to do the same, using her political weight to discourage action on climate change. And the irony that here she is trying to smother an Aboriginal artist's artwork by using claims that she "has done nothing to deserve such treatment", when she has been responsible for contaminating sacred Aboriginal sites.

First time flavor aid helped a large group of people

9 comments