The fifth picture I included in my photo essay about Cam Newton’s career does a great job at summing up the message I was trying to get across with my essay as a whole. Which is that no matter what bad things critics say about a person, that particular person will be recognized and awarded if they are having a positive impact on other’s lives and throughout their respective communities, something Cam Newton is accustomed to doing. The rookie of the year advertisement featuring the Panther’s all pro quarterback portrays Cam Newton in a very positive manner, magnifying all the great things about him in order to appeal to their customers, more specifically, his smile, football statistics, and the name of the prestigious award that he received following his incredible rookie season.

Throughout Newton’s first few seasons in the National Football League he was scrutinized heavily for having attitude issues and his inability to win games, which lead to him being labeled as a sore loser by the media. Despite being criticized often Cam took the NFL by storm and made his rookie year a season for the record books. The Under Armour advertisement exemplifies all the things that make Cam Newton the football icon that he is, while hiding all of the negative things that he is shunned for. The rookie of the year advertisement dispels the idea that Cam Newton could have attitude issues by making Cam look happy and incredibly friendly, showing off his charismatic smile. UA’s (Under Armour’s) reasoning behind having Newton smile in the advertisement is because people are usually drawn to friendly non-intimidating individuals, which will obviously be advantageous when you are trying to endorse the face of your brand. Cam is also dressed in casual clothes, opposed to his football uniform, because oftentimes superstar athletes are viewed by fans as godlike and people have a tendency to forget that these athletes are more than just their sport. Having Cam dress casually helps remind people that he is a person just like the people who watch him every Sunday, which makes him more likeable and will make football fans less critical of every little thing that Cam does because he is human and it is in our nature to be imperfect. Portraying Cam as a friendly relatable guy who has things in common with his fans will definitely make UA products more appealing to those who view this advertisement.

Another strategy used by UA to manipulate their advertisement more aesthetic and give the face of the brand notoriety for his accomplishments within his sport is including a bar with all the records that Cam broke in his first season on the bottom of the ad which looks very similar to the statistic bar fans see on television when watching football. The purpose of listing the records that Newton broke on the same bar that fans read stats off of on game day is because the majority of UA customers are football fans who are used to reading relevant information off of the same type of bar when they are watching a game. So out of instinct their attention is immediately drawn to the records he has broken when they view this advertisement, which make Cam, the face of Under Armour, even more impressive. The font that the records are written in are also light blue which is the Panthers’ team color, symbolizing the franchise that Cam represents.

The picture that Under Armour used of Cam Newton for their advertisement is very different than one that the Carolina Panthers would use before a game to pump up their fans on the jumbo-tron. The Panthers would use a photo similar to the sixth picture in my photo essay, of Cam pumping up the crowd doing his signature “superman” celebration. The reason for the big difference in photo choice is because Under Armour and the Carolina Panthers have very different purposes for their respective Cam Newton photographs. While Under Armour is trying to show Cam as a friendly person who excels both on and off of the field in order to cater to the wants and needs of their customers, the Panthers are trying to pump up their fans and intimidate the opponent, so they choose at photo of Cam that shows the strength, swagger, and confidence he has on the football field. This is relevant because the same person could be displayed in two significantly different ways solely based on what the motives are behind the photograph, which answers the key question as to how this visual depiction of Cam Newton would function in a different context. This again brings up the theme that has been prevalent throughout English 101, which is there is no concrete meaning behind a particular piece of literature. Which means that two different people could look at the same passage or photograph and have very different opinions on the message that the particular piece is trying to get across.

Cam Newton, the face of both the Carolina Panthers and the Under Armour brand as a whole, has faced a lot of adversity throughout his 5-year career and has had trouble maintaining his positive image throughout the league because of the negative things that the media says about him. Ultimately the Panther’s franchise quarterback has had a lasting positive impact on the Charlotte community and the National Football League as a whole, that is not to say the Newton has not made some mistakes along the way, but at the end of the day he is only human and fans need to understand that before they judge him for the few mistakes that he has made throughout his career in order to truly appreciate all the good that the sports icon has done. The rookie of the year UA advertisement is the best possible example of showing the version Cam Newton that football fans want to see, exemplifying all the great things about the star quarterback, showing him as more than just the Panther’s quarterback but instead showing the side of Cam that the media often fails to see, which is a friendly caring guy who strives for success both on and off of the football field.
