CNBC's "Business Models" Serves Up Eye Candy Masquerading As News
LatestLast night, CNBC aired its heavily-promoted special “Business Model,” which was, of course, a thinly veiled excuse to feature scantily-clad Sports Illustrated swimsuit models on the financial news channel for an entire hour.
The website description promises:
CNBC’s Sports Business Reporter Darren Rovell takes an unprecedented look inside the most profitable single-issue magazine franchise in the world. Find out how business, beauty, fashion and sports come together to create this much-anticipated, multi-dimensional franchise that alone generated 7 percent of Sports Illustrated’s advertising revenue in 2009.
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue means big business not only for parent company Time Inc., but also for the models, advertisers, fashion designers and locations that grace its pages. Rovell gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the scouting, set-up and inner-workings of the photo shoots as he travels to one of the exquisite undisclosed locations and interviews the models vying for the ultimate prize-being featured on the cover of this year’s issue and becoming a household name.
However, this translated to long, lingering, steamy looks at the models and the bathing suits. The program was about 80% SI puff piece, featuring the models at play, getting wet, and talking about their lives while writhing on blankets and towels. (A friend described the program as “porn for Republicans”). And indeed it was – CNBC was attempting to a serious tone but what ended up on television was remarkably similar to the videos on the Sports Illustrated site.
Producers did include segments on the people behind the issue, who, perhaps surprisingly, are overwhelmingly female. Considering the Swimsuit edition is aggressively marketed to men, it was kind of mind-boggling to discover how many women are involved in the creation of the magazine: the two chief editors of the Swimsuit issue have been women, and much of their support staff is female as are many of the designers whose wares are featured in the magazine and on the models.
Taking a look at the grim realities of the current magazine market, the piece opened by explaining where the Swimsuit Edition fits into the media landscape.
The original editor, Jule Campbell, was tasked with creating the very first swimsuit issue.