If ever there was an athlete made to fully embrace the six seconds of glory that is Vine, it would be social media maven/Olympic athlete, Lolo Jones. The prolific Twitter user has gone all in with the mini video application, something her recent Vine activity demonstrates quite well. Apart from embracing the quickly decreasing attention span of, well, everyone, Vine looks like it’s providing an evolution of sorts for what has surely become the favorite social media sharing/mobile phone camera activity, taking selfies.
In her latest video, however, Jones uses her “I take great selfies” ability to bring attention to the inequality of funding regarding Olympic athletes. Of course, Jones had to explain that position after posting the following video:
While Jones’ has since explained the reason for posting the video, when it first hit, people apparently took at as Jones acting like a spoiled athlete, while pointing out she, in fact, has money from previous endorsements. While that may be the case, it took Jones clarifying before it clicked:
“I don’t want to make anyone mad, and I’ve always wanted to help out the bobsled athletes,” Jones exclusively tells E! News. “Some of them have debt because they’ve given their life to the sport. My partner Jazmine [Fenlator] and I had to raise money for the bobsled to be funded just to finish the season, because only two of the three sleds are funded by the team… The Vine of the paycheck is just showing the difference between track and bobsled, and to be honest, bobsledders work more hours than track!”
Jones has played this angle up on Twitter as well:
RT @ilanared: Yes Lolo Jones Vine on bobsled $ got laughs, but for most athletes it's their life. … http://t.co/SLB2N3TTpX
— Lolo Jones (@lolojones) June 17, 2013
Perhaps Jones should use her influence and commercial appeal to bring about change to the funding imbalance. Furthermore, CelebrityNetWorth.org has the Olympian’s 2012 earnings at $1.5 million, and her endorsers include:
Her sponsors include ASICS, McDonald’s Corporation, Red Bull, Oakley, Procter & Gamble, Twinlab Corporation, BP, DISC Sports & Spine Center, and Kemin
Granted, I don’t know a great deal about Olympic training, and the fundraising involved, but it seems to me most of the companies listed in Jones’ stable of endorsers would be happy to be associated with such a cause, especially McDonald’s, which is always eager to paint itself in a positive light. Supporting an under-funded Olympian just seems like another solid PR move.