I was checking out Yahoo! to get caught up on news and current events and came across this bizarre ad.
I understand that skateboarding is advertising shorthand for “cool” and “edgy,” so I guess I can kind of see what they are aiming for here, but it has been a long time since the inaugural X Games back in 1995 and advertisers have had PLENTY of time since then to familiarize themselves with action sports and presumably to avoid embarrassing images like this one.
We’re not talking Bagel Bites fifteen years ago here. Yahoo! is supposed to be an innovative company. They are the number one disseminator of information on the web; the largest news portal. How could they be THIS out of touch?!
Who was the, er, yahoo, who looked at the image of a glistening MC Hammer in soccer shorts and a Timex watch staging a jump next to a skateboard and said, “yeah, that’s exactly what we’re going for!”
I don’t know why I get so riled up about stuff like this. I think it is because I have been a part of action sports in some way or another since I was twelve years old (long before they were called action sports). I got my first skateboard in the seventh grade and skateboarding became my religion for the next several years. I discovered the brand new sport of inline skating when I was a junior in high school and fell in love with it and eventually moved from Texas to California and made a career as a professional skater and then a graphic artist in the inline industry for nearly fifteen years.
I love rollerblading, it is a giant part of who I am and I know that a big part of my emotional response to bullshit like this horrendous Yahoo! ad stems from the fact that the sport that I love, rollerblading, has been so completely marginalized by not just the mainstream media (whatever that means??), but also, and especially by our peers in the action sports community.
You won’t find inline included anywhere in the programming for the all action sports TV network Fuel. MySpace recently added an action sports category to their site that does not include inline and even Yahoo! which is a leader in mainstream sports coverage has an action sports tab on their sports page, but guess who’s not included?
So when I look at images of a sweaty MC Hammer getting his cardio on by jumping over a skateboard on Yahoo!’s homepage I can’t help but wonder how this could be considered a more acceptable representation of action sports than say, god forbid, rollerblading. For the record, rollerblading is not a brand new sport anymore. Whatever reservations or complaints anyone may have had about the sport while it was in its infancy don’t really hold true anymore. You could easily put the best rollerbladers up against the best athletes from any other action sport.
All politics and agendas aside, the fact remains that rollerblading IS an action sport. Rollerbladers session the same street spots, go to the same skateparks, buy the same clothes, listen to the same music and watch the same videos as any skateboarder or bmxer. Rollerblading is a trick based sport that values trick progression over competition and celebrates in equal parts danger and style. Trying to pretend that rollerblading doesn’t exist or that it isn’t a part of the action sports community is preposterous.
It is almost as preposterous as trying to say that skateboarding has more in common with MC Hammer than it does with inline skating.
Arlo
GOST
Roll4life
Word the fuck up Arlo.
You peep footagetape.com yet? We need to rock an Arlo section sometime.
Haaahahaha, I saw that ad and thought the exact same thing, way cooler than fruit booting.
yes. always such good wording and points arlo, which you can tell i do not possess.
Thanks for this one Arlo, I cannot tell you how heartbroken it makes me whenever I see how much we’re left out these days. All I know is, we’re still here and whether the general public knows it or not, we always will be here.
Seeing this brinds to mind the phrase ‘schadenfreude’-satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else’s misfortune .
Sure skateboarding is no longer our enemy, those years are thankfully as far as everyday for me goes , over, I get allot of respect from skateboarders as of late (unlike when i started in 98).
The Danny ways, the Chad kagy’s of the world who act like rollerblading is below their level,like our sport is shit to them.
this is what they’ve reaped, Mc hammer jumping over a skateboard, enjoy the fruits of your labour.
In it for the game!! they don’t need us, we don’t need them.
Thanks for this blog Arlo, great points and I agree with you. However, I don’t think we’re doing ourselves full justice either, I mean it’s not up to the general public to find us, it’s up to us to take it to them, and give them something to sit up and pay attention. At the skateparks I know, there is far more respect across sports than there was before so the door is far from closed to rollerbladers. The WRS should be a great opportunity for us to showcase our industry, our talent and our sport but we’re not making the most of it. I’ve seen little to no mainstream coverage and what has come from within our industry has been generally lacking, with small edits days after the event. I’m sure that someone within the WRS must and should be pushing and promoting to get us more airtime (especially after the first succesful year is now done) and this is the only way I see us being taken seriously as an “Action sport” by the media and not just the fad from the late 90s we were perceived as….
you’re not the only one Arlo… i actually checked out some roller sports groups representing the Australian action sports as well as general roller sports and guss what… they forgot to add rollerblading… so a while back i sent them all info like magazones we have, good examples of what we do like WinterClash… and some pro skater sections… and shops localy supplying aggressive skates…, and heres the link;)http://www.skateaustralia.org.au/web/news.php?newsid=226&title=Rolling+Wrap+Up and it looks like others have helped update the site and make the sport known on there… march i say and get them web sites right!
Wakeboarding included but not rollerblading? surely wake should be considered far newer then rollerblading. absolute joke.
yea it sure is ridiculous, what if the picture was mc hammer on skates?
WoW, Yahoo fuked up eh, who cares srew them Roller bladeing will make its mark soon , and it will be great
Im very proud to be a Rollerblader ! Roll4ever!!we win for us !!we have the most amazing sport in world !
while far below the radar…..you see us in the streets…. you see our trail of smoke…..and when you stand near us….you feel the warmth of our inner fire…..we are the chosen ones…..the children of the light……and that light is fire…..we are the dilligent ones….we are the smart ones….. dedication to our beliefs is our religion…….and we believe in MURDER.
honesty, really good points arlo, but really think about it, would you really want our sport out into the general public and viewed how skateboarding is; as a fad, or as the cool thing to do in order to fit in. you made a very good point in saying that our sport is more about the progression of tricks and not competition, well i worry that if rollerblading becomes the “cool” thing to do then we will have lost our sport for what it is now; for the trick progression and the sessions and friendships and the respect for the sport that I’ve seen in so many other rollers.
Just some thoughts, hit me up if you happen to have any feed back
The reason we are not listed in any form of “actionsport” media. Is because the people running the back end don’t have the balls to put rollerblading an instant “dis cred” of cool factor. They think if they do, it brings them down a level. Even if they see the epic level that rollerblading has reached, they have old school ignorant skateboarders and moronic marketing people telling them it would be business suicide. If anything it just proves that these sports have distanced themselves so far from what they originally where in their birthing process. Gone from being the “losers” the “picked on and beat up” full circle to the douche bag jocks trying way to hard to fit in. Kind of ironic isn’t it?
I can’t help but to be frustrated about this whole not being in the media anymore situation. When I roll at skateparks all I see is skateboarding and 1 blader (me). Which leads me to have to represent and always have to at least bust something hard infront of their faces. I’ll wax coping infront of all them too. I don’t give a fuck. Skateboarding is an ill sport ill give them that, but I know majority of them kids out there are just skateboarding for the moment know what im sayin. They’ll be over it real quick. Oh, well keep rollin playas, we’ll get it back.
I’ve seen the myspace action sports tab and it is appalling how inline is not listed… I agree. It’s also like this on many other “action sport” sites. The mainstream doesn’t have a clue about how sick rollerblading is nowadays because they are too caught up in deep sleep… I also hate seeing how skateboarders make more money then us… This kind of bs makes me gag… seeing nothing but skateboarders at parks also makes me sick. I’m 26 and I’ve been skating since around 12 years old. Blading was hella bigger when I first started… as it was when Arlo did but that doesn’t stop me from blading now. All I can hope for is that anyone in support of rollerblading is doing their best to get us out there more because I sure as hell am…
“Soma” French skateboard mag, jock about MC Hammer
“Name the trick” and win a carambar (candy)
http://leblogdesoma.blogspot.com/2009/11/name-trick.html
Some skateboarders are shame to be compare with Ryan Sheckler, Rob Dyrdek, Jereme Rogers, Maloof Money Cup…
does it really matter we’re not on the same page as other action sport? i quit giving a shit a long time ago and i came to the conclusion that rolling will NEVER EVER be on the same page as other action sports. and i’m ok with that. i guess arlo that you’re still trying to get attention from the other sports. i don’t know but i really think you should just let rolling just be rolling. why does it matter to you how other people see us?
Why is everyone here being so polite on the subject? I say fuck the skateboarders. Where i live they still talk shit and run there mouth. i honestly want rollerblading to be on tv just to prove to these muthafuckers that our sport takes just as much skill and balls if not more than any other extreme sport. A lot of people talk shit about rollerblading but the fact is 99 percent of them havnt even seen a rollerblading video and if they saw what we are doing these days they would shut the fuck up