Forgotten your jodhpurs, girls? Showjumping's desperate image bid

and event though i thought the pictures did some of them no favours (i mean how do you take a bad picture of whittington, i have never been able too) it was all tongue in cheek, nor was it used to 'promote' the sport (though its good humour has had that effect)
 
I was very disappointed with the pics in the Mail. At the end of the day what's wrong with the formal so called stuffy attire. It looks smart and professional. This is just tacky and endemic of society today - dumbing down and cheapening. Shame really to the girls pictured for doing it. Its demeaning and unnecessary. I would not regard them as showjumping ambassadors - I'll reserve that phrase for the lady riders who truly deserve it - Pat Smythe, Marie Edgar, Caroline Bradley, etc
 
Have to say what is more appealing to the public ellen in her caldene photos (fully clothed) or these girls in their trashy half naked pics, It is yet again yeah girls you can compete equally against men in this sport but really you are just better at getting your kit off to generate publicity.
Bring on Katie Price she does so much more to bring equestrian into the media without getting her kit off, just by looking great in her riding clothes.
Would we ever realise there is just as much publicity by doing well it the olympics then by bringing the sport down to gutter level with these photos
Forgot to add these girls in their contract would/should of had a say on their attire and then a final say on the photo, if they did not well that is dumb and there is no excuse for that. sorry to upset anyone
 
Crikey! Some of the posts are pretty unfair on the girls, they aren't professional models, clearly someone didn't book a professional photographer, so it was always going to be poor. How were the girls to know? They at least, I'm sure did it with the best of intentions, and I think they have been let down - bless them, they were game enough to do it!

Really, they are nice looking, with good figures, a proper stylist and photographer could have done some cracking pics with no more than a top button undone...
 
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Bring on Katie Price she does so much more to bring equestrian into the media without getting her kit off, just by looking great in her riding clothes.


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But the only reason Katie P can bring equestrian into the media is because she is famous - and the reason she is famous is for getting her kit off! Whilst there's nothing wrong with that, she's hardly the person I would hold up as an ambassador of modesty and class in the sport!
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Have to say I think these pics are a bit tacky - SJ can be up to date and sexy without being trashy, and its a great shame they aren't shot professionally to look far more classy.
 
they actually did employ a professional (but not a specialist fashion/glamour one) here is the link http://www.katzeye.co.uk/index.html clearly good a taking pictures of what is in front of her but not so good at structured, posed shots of which i suppose Annie Liebo???? who does Vanity Fair is the best example i can think of.
 
True enough... but not in a positive way !!! and we're even the horsey people who would try hard to see the benefits, so goodness knows what joe public think ( which if they are Mail readers won't be much as the last story they ran about SJ was David Mc wottsit beating up his horse at Hickstead and being fined and the BSJA being accused of covering it up )
 
A bit of a fake tan - airbrush and a decent photographer would have been a good idea.

and some decent undies ha ha - who picked the bridget jones white knickers lol x

The would have looked better in jods !!!
 
i dont think it would be the girls idea do you more men idears i think
but i must stay that it does give woman a name s**g comes too mind but equestrian has also been known for a sexy industry too but aleast they could of kept there jods on
 
I think I must be missing something !!

How can it be good to have horse beating, cover ups, and sleaze as the only publicity given to promote a sport, surely it would be better to have none rather than that. It does get people talking but only about how awful things are, if you are offering sponsorship I can't think of anyone who would want their company associated with that.

There are always way to generate publicity tastefully, look at Sophie ??? the para dressage rider in the papers with Paul McCartney, he met her and was inspired to help her.
 
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But that's the point, any publicity is GOOD!

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sadly as i said earlier in this thread that is a rather unfortunate urban legend. virtually all of this talk is negative. it wont inspire investment in the sport except from one or two sleaze balls with no real money.
Let me give you an alliteration you will really understand with your eventing experience. Do you think that Bettina was done any favours when she got eliminated in athens? the publicity she got from that mistake was enormous. Did she get any new rides from it? A new sponsor? and that wasnt cheap and taky just a mistake hundredsof horse people competing make every week.
as someone else said the Mail readers are now coupling this with the other big horse stories they have heard in recent years David Mcpherson for one and another covered by the Mail was William and Pippa Funnells marital hiccup in 2004. People have long memories where scandal is concerened and i should think there are a great number of their readers who are now firmly convinced that showjumping is populated by chavs and chavettes with their brains in their knicker/pants. Avery small minority might think its amusing and decide to go to hickstead to see these girls in person but i shouldnt think ebnouh to make a significant differnece on the figures.
by the way did you see the picture of matt i put on picture gallery for you saturday
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I don't believe so Lucretia, any good businessman will invest in anything that is in the public eye and being talked about.

You only have to look at a going off the rails Britney Spears' album sales to prove it is not a myth.

Currently she has no new music out and suddenly she is not so often in the papers or on the news...clever marketing huh?
 
Whilst I think everyone agrees that the pictures may not have been the classiest they seem to have done the trick and generated the much needed publicity that is needed for the sport.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/racing/showjumping-gets-sexy-873762.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/racin...wds-873761.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2443561/Showjumping-is-sexed-up.html

When did showjumping or a particular show get this much 'exposure'?

The best class I have ever seen is the Hamburg speed derby where they introduced each rider and played a themed tune when the rider was in the ring. The crowd really got into it and it had a fantatic atmosphere. The Chester show seems like it is going to be run along the same lines which will be brilliant for supporters as well as encouraging people who bet on horses, to go along and have a bet. If shows can be run along the lines of going along, having a good time and having a flutter, surely this is better than going along to shows which are boring and have as much atmosphere as the moon. If more sponsorship is available with better price money, then we will start seeing the return of the worlds best riders, which is what we are lacking now, and produces the classes that we all want to see.

Cricket is the dullest sport going, but they have adapted it, made it interesting and turned it into a commercial success. This is what showjumping has got to do to survive.
 
but her sales are down since she started gettting all the bad press and thats also the reason there is no new music, the record companies are not interestedin investing in her.
so for her bad publicity has been exactly that as it was for Michael jackson if you wish to use musicians as an example. The famous united colours of benetton campaign that used bill boards of a baby so freshly boen it was covered in blood and mucus certainly got the whole country talking, and nearly put benetton out of business when the stores were boycotted til the picture was withdrawn. all publicity is good publicity if your only purpose is too be famous for being famous but jade goody is another who might now realise in business it isnt.
if all publicity was good then politians would never have to resign when their torrid secrets are found out, spin doctors would not have a job and marketing employees could stop thinking hard about PR campaigns and just use sex and shock tactics for everything. Howmany people carriers would have been sold if the ads featued skimply clad woman instead of families having a nice day out but i bet a page three type picture of jordan sitting on the bonnet a renault espace with everything revealed would certainly have been talked about while the yummy mummies all trotted down to Peugot.
Two of the major sponsors or european showjumping, Rolex and Longines, would be horrified if their official sponsored rider had posed in a similar fashion.
I will be spending most of this week at hickstead though, where i am sure you are aware they are looking for a major sponsor, a fact they publised before these pictures were published. i shall be interested to find out if they have had any offers since these pictures came out and be sure to let you know if i do.
 
and actually i totaly agree with all the other stuff they are thinking of doing and what you have said about it but notice that none of those articles uses the offending pictures and i think the one of the three riders standing together is much better anyway.
also both those papers have a dedicated equestrian columist and regularly feature horsey stories in their sports pages. So far the papers that are not horsey have not picked it up in a major way and those are the ones they need to get on board. the telegraph, mail and independent, are preaching to many of the converted.
i suspect that (despite the awful pictures) those particular papers would have run this story as it fits in well with covering hickstead which they will both be doing.
 
We all think its bad publicity but look at it from Joe Publics point of view.

Girls Aloud - Popular with young girls... yes ... classy? No!

Jordan - Popular ... yes... In her former(present?) days could hardly be called classy.

Joe Public isn't classy, you only have to go to a nightclub to see how classy the nation has become
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You may all deny it but at the end of the day, sex sells. Look at chocolate, often sold on sex, even DFS have had some
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adverts in the past.
 
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Whilst I think everyone agrees that the pictures may not have been the classiest they seem to have done the trick and generated the much needed publicity that is needed for the sport.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/racing/showjumping-gets-sexy-873762.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/racin...wds-873761.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2443561/Showjumping-is-sexed-up.html

When did showjumping or a particular show get this much 'exposure'?

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I think you hit it spot on! Non horsey friends who i've known all my life are suddenly interested in showjumping because its in the papers - and not just the one with Georgie and Laura's pictures! the publicity is definately gaining interest (granted lucretia - not all of it good) and hopefully if we could put in a good performance at hickstead and bring some medals home from beijing then I think it will become alot more noticed by the public.
 
they look rubbish and will be the laughing stock of serious showjumping the world over.
lowest common denominator, the kind of people who think they look sexy in their shabby knickers wouldn't be able to follow the sport anyway on account of the adding up required to understand what's going on!
 
As a rule I am not an individual who is normally drawn to horse related sports but have been given this website by colleagues due to the media attention regarding the two girls featured in the Sunday Mail/Telegraph/Independant and other newspapers this week. Firstly I find questionable the verbal interactive conduct from others who I can only assume are competitors in this sport - it takes the meaning of the word jealousy to a new level. I really question where the stand point and support for this sport comes from. I feel that some of the comments and statements made in this forum are individual verbal assaults and wonder if or when these statements will be challenged and can the individuals making such statements substatiate them? If this is not the case I can only assume that the next law suit I read about in the Telegraph will be between 'show jumpers'. As a first timer on this site I can only give my comments:- Neither girls to my mind look trashy or tarty. The photos shown on the internet and in various papers shown to me by my staff show no more flesh than most of you would see on a night out or by some of the youngsters walking our streets. The fact that the media have chosen to show two very attractive young ladies in attire not normally known to your world seems to disgust the majority of you. Why? It seems to me 'the majority' are the small, narrow minded individuals in this instance. I was shown the photos because as an international marketing company looking toward 2012 we are always looking for new ideas/talent/and a marketable product. These girls have all the qualities and we will be following this up further. It appears that most who have posted comments are female - some it is hard to decide - I have read all of them as we obviously have to be very careful who we choose to market our products. In this case I have decided that apart from the negative comments sent by female writers there is no harm done and after all - any media publicity puts you in the eye of the public, which is exactly what it has done for showjumping -a sport we would not normally consider!
 
You have TOTALLY missed the point of most flybynite - the thing most of us have an issue with is that the styling is APPALLING, nothing more, nothing less. There is no jealousy going on - granted, most of us would give our eye teeth to have a figure like the girls have - we are just watching out for the girls and our sport more than anything.

If you think the photos are classy then that is your prerogative, most don't and the majority of the gen public who spend money, compete, support and spend money is female, so female perception is absolutely key.

Black hot pants - there wouldn't have been this outcry I don't think - cheap knicks, everyone cringes. The poses are wrong, the styling is wrong, the girls are RIGHT.

I see one comment that could be classed as a verbal assault, the rest of the thread just cements the fact that the shoot could have been done in a FAR better way.
 
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