If you are a sports fan you probably know what the term Name, Image, and Likeness (or NIL) means. For the past few years this has dominated conversations associated with college sports. It started with the passing of a California law in 2019 that allowed college athletes to profit off of their own image. Before this kind of thing was forbidden by the NCAA (the governing body for most college sports in the US). This opened the proverbial floodgates and now there are some college athletes making millions of dollars off of their own likeness. The top three moneymakers last season were all football players, with the University of Alabama’s quarterback at the number one spot. He had an estimated value of $3.2 million at the start of the 2021 season. But this isn’t just in football. Olivia Dunne, a gymnast at LSU, signed a NIL deal with activewear brand Vuori worth more than $1 million last year.
Why are companies now giving so much money to these athletes? The answer is that their image means something to a lot of people. And this really is nothing new. Famous people have been endorsing products for a long time. If you associate someone you like with a product that product will sell more. A good example of this is the Wheaties cereal box. Yankees star Lou Gehrig was the first sports figure on their box back in 1934. Sports legends have been featured on Wheaties boxes ever since.
Let’s stay on the subject of cereal for a little while longer. Have you gone down the cereal aisle at a grocery store lately? There are brightly colored boxes everywhere. I would bet that is the most colorful place in the store. It kind of has to be that way doesn’t it? You aren’t actually going to buy a bunch of different boxes of cereal so each brand is competing with each other pretty vigorously. There is a lot of marketing strategy here. Besides the colors there is the positioning. Kids cereals are placed at an average of 23 inches from the floor. Why? Because that is where the kids’ eyes are. In contrast the average height of adult cereal boxes is 48 inches. And one other thing. Most kids cereal boxes feature a type of mascot. Pick up any kids box and you will probably see some colorful character looking at you. Studies show that a character making eye contact with you on the box is appealing.
It’s not just cereals that use images to rope us in. Companies work very hard on their corporate image and branding. The Coca-Cola Company spends an average of $4 billion a year on branding (Pepsi spends about $2.4 billion). Amazon spent almost $18.8 billion in branding and marketing in 2019. And some brands have spent as much as $200 million on the design of their logo alone.
Why are companies devoting so much resources for branding and logos?
Because it works.
Research reveals that we make brand purchase decisions based on associations and feelings rather than facts and stats. There may be no better proof of this than insurance commercials. Just about every major insurance company has a mascot, whether it is a gecko, a duck, an emu, or a woman in an apron named Flo, they all have them. It’s because they want us to associate cute animals or funny people with their product.
If you were to ask a corporate executive what a good image is worth, what would he or she tell you? What about you? what is a good image worth to you?
I am not against advertising. But I do have a problem when we make images worth more than people. I think we get into trouble when we use images to help define who we are. We have to wear those special shoes because we think they tell others something about us, or that logo on our shirts starts to mean more than it should.
There is an interesting story for us coming out of scripture that I find appropriate, coming to us from what Protestants would call the Apocrypha.
Daniel 14: 1-22
14 When King Asty′ages was laid with his fathers, Cyrus the Persian received his kingdom. 2 And Daniel was a companion of the king, and was the most honored of his friends.
3 Now the Babylonians had an idol called Bel, and every day they spent on it twelve bushels of fine flour and forty sheep and fifty gallons of wine. 4 The king revered it and went every day to worship it. But Daniel worshiped his own God.
5 And the king said to him, “Why do you not worship Bel?” He answered, “Because I do not revere man-made idols, but the living God, who created heaven and earth and has dominion over all flesh.”
6 The king said to him, “Do you not think that Bel is a living God? Do you not see how much he eats and drinks every day?” 7 Then Daniel laughed, and said, “Do not be deceived, O king; for this is but clay inside and brass outside, and it never ate or drank anything.”
8 Then the king was angry, and he called his priests and said to them, “If you do not tell me who is eating these provisions, you shall die. 9 But if you prove that Bel is eating them, Daniel shall die, because he blasphemed against Bel.” And Daniel said to the king, “Let it be done as you have said.”
10 Now there were seventy priests of Bel, besides their wives and children. And the king went with Daniel into the temple of Bel. 11 And the priests of Bel said, “Behold, we are going outside; you yourself, O king, shall set forth the food and mix and place the wine, and shut the door and seal it with your signet. 12 And when you return in the morning, if you do not find that Bel has eaten it all, we will die; or else Daniel will, who is telling lies about us.” 13 They were unconcerned, for beneath the table they had made a hidden entrance, through which they used to go in regularly and consume the provisions. 14 When they had gone out, the king set forth the food for Bel. Then Daniel ordered his servants to bring ashes and they sifted them throughout the whole temple in the presence of the king alone. Then they went out, shut the door and sealed it with the king’s signet, and departed. 15 In the night the priests came with their wives and children, as they were accustomed to do, and ate and drank everything.
16 Early in the morning the king rose and came, and Daniel with him. 17 And the king said, “Are the seals unbroken, Daniel?” He answered, “They are unbroken, O king.” 18 As soon as the doors were opened, the king looked at the table, and shouted in a loud voice, “You are great, O Bel; and with you there is no deceit, none at all.”
19 Then Daniel laughed, and restrained the king from going in, and said, “Look at the floor, and notice whose footsteps these are.” 20 The king said, “I see the footsteps of men and women and children.”
21 Then the king was enraged, and he seized the priests and their wives and children; and they showed him the secret doors through which they were accustomed to enter and devour what was on the table. 22 Therefore the king put them to death, and gave Bel over to Daniel, who destroyed it and its temple.
If you have spent any time at all in church you have been warned about the power of images. This story is just one example of how dangerous they can be. The bible is full of stories just like this.
What is an image worth? The answer is whatever we say it is. So let’s examine what images mean to us and then make sure that we put them in the proper place.
God Bless