How and Why Athletes Draw Consumers to Use Specific Products

Sports are integrated into people’s lives. They have a great influence on human society, not only for people’s health but also for cultural development. Different countries like and are good at different sports. For example, when people hear about China, people will think of ping-pong. When people hear about Brazil, people will think of soccer. Currently, the United States is the most powerful country in the world. What type of sports are the Americans good at or like? It must be the American football. In the United States, what professional American football event is the most watched? People have to say that it must be The Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is so really popular in America that the Sunday of The Super Bowl has become compared to a national festival. Every single year, lots of popular singers and musicians give people a big show during the halftime of the game. Thanksgiving day is the first-largest food consumption day in the United States, and which day is the second? Of course be The Super Bowl Sunday. (TicketCity). The Super Bowl has a great impact on many aspects of Americans.

American sport telecasts have not only dominated the average American household, but have also claimed a great presence and importance in the households of many Canadians. The sport of football is widely watched and praised in the United States. Every year the National Football League plays a championship game known as the Super Bowl, which is watched by many Americans. This American championship game is also popularly watched in Canada. According to statistics released by the National Football League and the Canadian Television Network, in 2015 more Canadians than Americans, on a per capita basis, watched the Super Bowl. These statistics showed that fifty-five percent of all Canadians, versus only fifty-one percent of all Americans, had watched part of the 2015 Super Bowl game telecast.1

Sports are something that everyone in the world, regardless of age, sex, or nationality, can enjoy. Whether it's a child playing in his first t-ball game or a professional athlete swimming in the Olympics and everyone in between, sports can connect almost everyone. Fan support and overall devotion for athletic competition has raised professional athletes to superstars and national icons; Super Bowl Sunday is a national holiday to some, and sports are one of the largest moneymakers in the economy.

For the past years the media has had a big effect on society. Many people rely on the media for news or sports coverage but they don’t realize that the media may influence people’s beliefs or way of behaving. The media covers sports in order to provide information to the fans but they also can create fake news to spark controversy in sports. The world of sports is largely affected by the media as they are a big topic to talk about throughout all kinds of media. Although the media can provide information of sports to fans, it can also create positive and negative conditions for the athletes. The media’s portrayal of sports creates rivalries between teams and players which increases competitiveness, damages professional relationships, and

Sports of old were merely competitive activities rooted in heroism and romanticism. Sports activities today, however, have no such innocence or simplicity. Currently in America, the activities that make up our sports culture is not only the competitive events themselves but the processes and issues that underlie and surround them. Entwined in our sports culture is the giant business of mass broadcasting. Indeed, sports and the media go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly, like Mickey and Minnie, Darth Vader and Luke. They are intertwined and depend on each other to continue to grow. Sports media includes television, radio, magazines, newspapers, books, films, and, now, most importantly, social media devices provided by the

Throughout the years, sporting events has been a place for fans to forget about what is going on in their life, take a break from the real world, and focus on the game. Often, many fans don't just watch and keep up with sports solely because of the type of sport, but also to keep up with their favorite athletes and teams. However, the aggressive and violent nature of the sports can often be carried over from the field to real life, impacting not only the athlete and the team, but also the fans.

The author sets the stage of his article by talking about the upcoming Super Bowl. He uses distinct adjectives to create imagery that in turn sets the mood for the rest of the writing. Keating goes on to describe how America is the only country to play football and tells that only the best two teams out of thirty-two play in this Super Bowl for the title of “world champion” (1). Football is described as played on a ninety-one meter field involving “two large teams of large men wearing large amounts of protective padding ...while their opponents attempt to knock them to the ground with maximum force” (Keating 1). While the actual playing time is only about eleven minutes, the game usually lasts as long as three hours. It is usually taken up by many advertising commercials and replays. The author explains that the players begin playing at an early age and work their way up. Women are only seen as cheerleaders and dancers in this masculine dominated sport. In his conclusion, Keating demonstrates how businesses get involved by spending millions of dollars in their hopes to show their latest brands.

Positives of Althusser’s structural approach to ideology are the identification of the methods for alienation and subjection of the working-class and their beliefs, by classifying such forms of misleading ideology it has allowed for the working class to acknowledge their false consciousness and additionally for the sociology of knowledge to advance. On the other hand, (Miller 2002) argues that yes, the ruling class do influence capitalist social norms, however, the notion that ideology regulates and sustains social order has been over analysed and excessively inflated by theorists such as Althusser.

Sport is a global phenomenon, it is a common between all the nations of the world there is not one culture that has not engaged in a way or another in some type of sporting activity; such activities are not only often physically challenging and mentally stimulating – they also provide a sense of belonging and personal meaning to people’s lives. In American culture like many other cultures worldwide winning is highly prized and cherished by fame and money from audiences and sponsors.

Growing up in a household full of males, minus my Mother, Monday nights were always such a big deal to our family for one reason, Monday Night Football! It did not matter if the team we disliked the most was playing, our whole family was glued to the television after seven o’clock. It was not until I was enrolled into this class, that I figured out how one man changed the game of sports television single handedly. This man went by the name of Roone Arledge. I chose to write about this topic because I know how much of an impact sports television had on my family. It always brought us closer together no matter how stressful our weeks were. We always enjoyed spending that time together and Roone Arledge was the visionary behind all of it.

AQA AS/A SOCIOLOGY ESSAY: CRITICALLY EXAMINE MARXIST PERSPECTIVES ON TODAY’S SOCIETY Classical Marxism is a conflict structural theory which argues that, rather than society being based on value consensus as functionalists would contend, there is a conflict of interest between different groups (social classes) because of the unequal distribution of power and wealth. Marxists are also interested in the way in which social change can occur, particularly in sudden and revolutionary ways. However, there are differences between Marxists especially over the way which social change can come about. For example, humanistic Marxists like Gramsci give a greater role to the conscious decisions and actions of human beings than do structural Marxists

Marketing plans and strategies are an important part of almost any business today. One of the biggest industries marketing plans have benefited and changed in a number of different ways is the sports industry. The development of the sports marketing industry has led companies to invest millions of dollars to have their product associated with specific teams, players, and sporting events attempting to connect with consumer and create profit for both parties involved. The money involved in sports marketing calls for these sponsorships and endorsement decisions to be made both strategically and confidently. After researching the sports industry from a business perspective the importance of marketing decisions is

According to Marx, those who have power over society exert their control as a result of economic power and therefore determine the dominant ideologies within the superstructure model. Being the greater economical and cultural barrier, the structure provides the social world with norms, rules and beliefs pertaining to age, gender, class and one’s cultural identity. Within that structure it becomes apparent that inequalities restrict your agency in terms of nationality, geographical location, class etc. In agreement with Marx, the dominant views are generally the views of the superior class; the elite. One example

Durkheim was one of the most influential sociologists in relation to the functionalist theories which stated society consisted of a structural consensus with a collective conscience of shared norms and values. He argued in order to establish the meaning of society one must understand the structures and social facts. He highlights changes in society from traditional societies which were linked with mechanical solidarity consisting of small scale ties with little division of labour. This in turn created a strong collective conscience of unity in comparison to modern society where differences amongst groups are promoted in turn weakening social solidarity. This is due to rapid changes within society in which Durkheim emphasises is due to a complex division of labour. Durkheim then argues that due to the combination of enlightenment notions and a capitalist society a collective conscience of individualism and greed is created. (Jones, Bradbury and Boutillier, 2011, pp.62-64)

This next unit of theory is entitled "Ideology and Discourse." The theorists we're examining--Althusser, Bakhtin, and Foucault--are discussing how ideology works, and how ideologies construct subjects. All of these theorists are coming from a Marxist perspective, using ideas and terms developed in Marxist theory, though only Althusser actually claims to be a Marxist. So to start off, I want to talk a bit about some basic ideas of Marxist theory.