These guys set a very bad example, wearing NO safety equipment (helmet at the very least) and they shouldn’t be rewarded… they are talented but you only need one bad fall to end up 6 ft under.

Jon

Another discussion is how MTV isn’t a traditional company or even a traditional media company as what they do isn’t make products like shows, or even make lifestyle brands but, rather do something that some have named “marketing cool”. It’s something along the lines building a youthful context for marketers to associated with. Long gone are the videos and the idea of MTV as a music channel. They don’t even make TV shows really. It’s a sort of educational channel now. It’s like Sesame Street for pre-teens to young adults.

Take someone from the middle ages, sit them infront of a MTV for a month and (assuming it doesn’t kill them) after that they should be ready to assimilate into the modern global consumerist world we live in. They won’t know how an Cadillac Escalade works but they will want it to come with chrome 26’s.

His show on MTV is nothing special. They’ve given shows to people that come off the street. It’s a network where that’s seen as an asset. They want to keep having that socially relevant context for their advertisers and the fact that he’s a fresh amateur (media-wise) is a selling point. His buzz on UTube might have an impact on his contract negotiations and made him more expensive to MTV but, for them it’s the same ‘old game. And what they loose in higher sale price they probably make back in lower auditioning costs from people pre-vetting themselves as marketable entities and able to package a product. That is forgiveable because again, the product isn’t important, it’s the context.