Think: don’t use steroids
After I mulled my previous posts on anti-smoking ads and athletes’ steroid use it occured to me that all this hype is just one big advertisement that screams, “Hey, teenagers, use steroids, or you’ll never play major-league baseball.”
The numbers being thrown around are incredible. 50% or even 85% of baseball players are (possibly) spiking it up. If I’m a highschool player, do I watch all these reports and think, “Man, all my heroes are cheating, precancerous scumbags,” or do I think, “Well, if that’s what it takes…”
Of course, those percentages are highly suspect. They were related by ex-players looking for press or trying to sell a book. And someone on ESPN tonight pointed out that almost half the current roster players are pitchers, and I don’t think anyone could accuse Pedro Martinez and the rest of his skinny ilk of performance enhancing drug use. But facts aren’t important in advertising, it’s the appearance of fact that matters.
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