Borkowski Weekly Media Trends 11-03-22
Chelsea facing bankruptcy | Kim Kardashian | Wordle getting pretentious?
Chelsea FC in crisis and football’s wider corruption problem
Chelsea FC is in turmoil after the UK government sanctioned their owner Roman Abramovich for connections to Putin, which means his assets are frozen, effectively blocking the sale of the club. In addition, government action has led to many sponsors cutting ties with Chelsea, including shirt sponsor Three, and Nike expected to do the same.
The government has granted Chelsea special permission to continue operating as a football club but prohibited the club from selling things like merchandise and matchday tickets.
And to make matters worse for Chelsea, rival fans have been revelling in the bizarre news that John Terry's controversial NFT collection has plunged 90% from all-time highs. It's another hit for their brand as Chelsea's former captain, widely considered a club legend, is embroiled in an NFT project representing the worst parts of the industry. It's pure unregulated greed, which is fast becoming common for sports stars past and present, a growing problem that football's regulator must address.
Chelsea is in an unprecedented situation that puts the club's future at risk. Unfortunately, only the club's insiders have an accurate financial picture; otherwise, it's a guessing game.
The irony of this situation is that Chelsea plays Newcastle this weekend, which are now owned by the Sovereign Wealth Fund from Saudi Arabia.
When we wrote about Newcastle's takeover, we concluded that football and the money that rules it is baked in corruption. On the one hand, it feels uncomfortable that so many fans enjoy Chelsea's demise when an ongoing war surrounds this decision. On the other, Chelsea's fans have celebrated trophies that Abramovich's money has effectively bought for almost two decades.
It demonstrates fans' lack of power to affect how their club is managed at the highest level. In Newcastle's case, most fans were happy to rid Ashley after years of dreadful and corrupt management, welcoming another regime with an even more disturbing track record. And whilst Chelsea's owners should be punished, it is profoundly concerning that this revolving door of corrupt money seems welcomed into the league the moment an enormous hole of funds needs filling.
But of course, fans can take a stand against owners who came into money nefariously or immorally; there are several ways fans can boycott a club. Whether they do on a massive scale is another story entirely.
Kim Kardashian’s controversial advice for women
Kim Kardashian has triggered yet another discussion on work ethic and privilege. In an interview for Variety, Kim decided to give a short piece of advice for women in business to the tune of ‘Get your f**king ass up and work’.
The comment re-opened the wound from back this summer. During a KUWTK reunion, Andy Cohen asked the famous sisters whether they were promoting unattainable beauty standards.
Kim denied the accusation forcefully, saying that it’s them who get up to do the work and it’s them who exercise. However, when even Andy Cohen looked a little shocked at such a response coming from a person with countless plastic surgeries on top of working out, something quite troubling transpired, and that was that Kim K is not as self-aware as her PR team wants us to believe.
In those statements, a Thatcherian, sky-is-the-limit belief that the Kardashians’ beauty and financial success are entirely self-determined and achieved purely because their work ethic is better than anyone else’s.
If one finds themselves less than the absolute hottest or isn’t on their way to becoming a CEO of a multi-billion-dollar brand, that is just because they are lazier than Kim. It is troubling to think she would honestly believe that. Still, perhaps in the criticisms of Kanye surrounding himself with yes-men, the public overestimates how self-aware the rest of the family can be.
With Kim complaining that ‘nobody wants to work these days’ on International Women’s Day, no less, it would have surely charmed her parts of her fanbase. However, it is hard to see how this strategy will work for her.
Will 'Elitist' wordle words drag the beloved word game into a woke war of words?
Rarely a new puzzle comes along that rocks the world. Wordle, the brilliantly simple word game designed by Josh Wardle for his partner and recently sold to The NY Times for over $1 million, had been just that sensation.
Many have pondered its virality and made educated guesses why it's so addicting. Some see it as the perfect remedy to clear covid or lockdown-induced brain fog. Among the other things it has going for it. It only comes out once a day, so there's a sense of anticipation. For that reason, It appeals to the neurotic completionist within each of us. It's challenging without being genuinely taxing. And there's the cosy comfort of having something to share with family and loved ones without talking to them!
However, The NYTimes faces an issue. No doubt, they would have the expertise to know what makes games popular over the long term. They already faced one comms snafu when they threatened to take it behind the paywall. Now they face another: there is the growing sense that Wordle, under the stewardship of the paper of record, has become captive to the elites.
Behavioural scientist Dr Pragya Agarwal wrote, 'The NYtimes has taken joy out of something that was for everyone, a tiny sense of achievement we could all get from solving it by making it into something we are likely to struggle with. A subtle veneer of pretentiousness has been added that makes me sad."
Many like a challenge. And maybe The NYTimes knows that mixing in the odd 'tacit' or 'knoll' is what it takes to get users hooked in. Games must generate frustration to generate obsession. However, many have voiced their concern that they don't want their daily Wordle to dip far into Webster's dictionary's exotic Latin and Greek etymologies. Forget 'proxy' and 'cynic' Give us good solid American nouns like 'thumbs' and 'stove'.
No doubt, The NYTimes know their audience. But games are more fun when you lose sometimes. And sometimes, difficulty lurks in the simplest words. Though most were stumped by 24 February's 'Bloke', Paul McCartney was reported to have gotten it on his first guess.