Stossel: Deconstructing Hype

— -- These days, you can't look or go anywhere without seeing billboards, television, radio and other sources bombarding us with hype about all aspects of our life and culture.

Every year, Cannes, France rolls out the red carpets and, for two weeks, plays host to Hollywood's stars. People who are not famous visit the city during the course of its fabled film festival to try to get famous. "People come here for no other purpose than to attract attention," says movie critic Roger Ebert who has attended the festival for the past 25 years.

And the attention-grabbing fest works for everyone. The paparazzi are so hungry for pictures they might sell to some newspaper or movie magazine, they'll take your picture even if you're not a movie star, if you just look like you might be.

Still, with 1,000 movies for sale at Cannes, how do you get people to pay attention to yours?

One way is to go to the beach and set yourself on fire. ABCNEWS' cameras captured a woman doing just that. And while no one was quite sure why she was doing it, dozens of photographers and camera crews turned up to take pictures.

It turned out she was hyping a new action film. She wasn't in the film, and there was no scene in the film of anyone catching fire, but the purpose of her appearance was to get media attention and she certainly caught it.

Building an Athlete's Image

What makes an athlete really famous? Skill at the sport helps, but is not enough. Just consider Brian "the Boz" Bosworth's career.

In the '80s, he was number 44, a college player from Oklahoma who started attracting more then the usual amount of attention. The press called him "a bad-boy with a buzz cut." And although he was a good football player, other players were as good. Still, when the Seattle Seahawks signed him, they paid Bosworth more than those other players.

Bosworth figured out that to make it really big, he had to do more than just play football well. "I needed to transform myself — kind of like the "Incredible Hulk" did when he got all pissed off," he says. "I needed to turn green."

He did not turn green, but he did come up with some antics to make sure he got noticed. While the stunts made money, many of his fellow players did not like him. Fans booed him and some even threw things at him. Many wore anti-Boz T-shirts. But did this hurt his feelings? Well, no, not the T-shirts — because the person who had them made was his own agent.

"We sold about 15,000 in Denver prior to [a] game," Wichard recalls, "Brian had nothing to do with it except perform… I was taking care of this well-orchestrated game plan."

Bosworth's looks and personality helped attract new fans, many of whom were not even football fans. His career trail blazed the way for a new generation of image-conscious sport stars.

You see it everywhere now. The players who get the most attention and money are not just the best athletes, they're the ones who are more interesting or good looking. Take, for example, tennis player Anna Kournikova. She is ranked only about 13th but she makes more endorsement money than most players ranked above her.

Of course, it's best if the athlete is good-looking, excels during performances and also has a magnetic personality. Especially since hyping oneself into another personality is risky, as Bosworth later found out.

"The media had a problem disassociating Brian from the Boz. So they didn't allow me to live as a separate entity from the character," he says. "I just want[ed] to have fun."

After two years in the pros, a shoulder injury killed Bosworth's career. Still, all the hype he got worked in his favor and helped launch a new career — in the movies.

The Media's Hype

In a discussion of hype, it's impossible to stay away from talking about the media. In today's news business, there's plenty of hype. Exaggeration in crime reporting, for example, is not uncommon.

Carl Gottlieb, of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, points out that people who watch the most TV think there is more crime than there is. As a result, TV scares some people into being afraid to leave their homes. But, he says, people are now getting sick of the way we exaggerate.

"What makes people watch, according to what we've studied, is quality news, quality product, not hype," Gottlieb says.

But, if that's true, why do TV ratings seem to show that when we hype stories, people tend to watch? When Carol Marin, a Chicago journalist, hosted a news program last year that refrained from hype and did solid reporting, ratings fell and the show was eventually canceled.

It's scare stories that are the most relentlessly hyped on TV news. Some of the most-hyped stories have dealt with medical threats, including apples that allegedly had a carcinogenic chemical in them and the potential danger of silicone breast implants.

In the case of the apples, some parents and schools panicked, throwing away apple juice and banning apples. The Environmental Protection Agency eventually banned the chemical Alar from use in foods. But many experts, including former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, believe it was based on flimsy science.

The scare over breast implants led the FDA to ban the implants. Dow Corning declared bankruptcy after it was sued by women who were convinced their implants gave them horrible diseases. Still, most scientists do not believe silicone implants cause the autoimmune system diseases.

The result of all the manipulations may be that you get scared, while lawyers and public relations firms get richer.

Wall Street's Hype

Many more people watch CNBC and other financial news shows these days. What they get is financial information and plenty of hype that leads people to think they should be trading stocks.

But while many of us might think so-called experts on TV might be giving dispassionate advice, many work for firms that do business with the companies traded on the exchanges and have an incentive to promote those companies. Professionals understand that reality, but a lot of amateur investors believe the analysts have no motive other than helping them.

In fact, James Cramer of TheStreet.com — who himself has been accused of hyping — says most of the analysts heard from on TV are not necessarily the ones with the best records.

"Most of the guys on TV… they're not that good," he says. "They're actors or they're salesmen!"

Selling You Stuff

Everybody wants your attention, so they can sell you stuff. Every day, we're exposed to thousands of ads. Billboards, television, radio, print sources and the Internet are all bombarding us with material and the clutter keeps growing. Some car owners are now paid $400 to put ads in their own cars and the Russians even sell space on their rockets.

With so many ads around, marketers are desperate to find something that will break through the clutter. Advertisers are desperate to get us to recognize the brand they're selling because if they can get the company's image in our brains, they will sell more stuff.

Lee Weinblatt runs an advertising research company that tries to figure out which TV ads are effective at cutting through the clutter. He's found that even the clever ads we like do not necessarily accomplish their goal.

During Super Bowl XXXV, many of us talked about the artsy ads that ran. But sometimes you could not tell what the ads were for. To see some examples of the ads, click on the 'in detail" box below and at the right.

"There was a big deal about the dot-coms that were on the Super Bowl. Twelve best liked dot-coms," Weinblatt says. "Nine out of those 12 either went out of business or got rid of their agency."

So even the experts on hype can't be sure that you'll buy what they hype. Many memorable ads, and many catchy images have not translated into success.