Michael Phelps – Did He Let His Fans Down?
Michael Phelps has signed a lucrative deal to promote Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes.
Basically, he will be using his celebrity status to push sugary, processed foods onto a generation of young people who already suffer from skyrocketing rates of obesity and diabetes.
Kids today need healthy role models who will not sellout to junk food promoters who have no problem trading fame for unethical profits.
Question: Does Phelps have a moral obligation to more carefully consider the consequences of his endorsements?
My opinion? Yes. I like Phelps as much as anyone else. He’s an extremely likeable guy who we all enjoyed watching succeed in Beijing. However, by endorsing Frosted Flakes cereal, he has now proven himself to be basically no different than anybody else who pushes unhealthy substances on American kids. Why couldn’t Phelps have found a healthy food product to endorse instead? I’ll tell you why…because cereal companies have much higher markups and have a lot more money to throw at celebrity endorsements.
We could even go so far as to say that Phelps has put his own profits ahead of the welfare of his millions of fans. While his fans get fat, Phelps gets rich.
Will the day come when Phelps realizes his mistake? Perhaps so. When his swimming days are done if he’s still eating and promoting junk food he will join his fans in experiencing a host of health problems. Hopefully, he’ll realize that processed sugar is not the “breakfast of champions.”
This does not take away from the fact that Phelps earned those eight gold medals. He is an amazing swimmer but not such a good role model. It’s too bad because he could have been a true champion on a whole new level by promoting some healthy products instead.
