Athletes as Celebrities; some history as well as look at impact media has on it

Athletes as celebrities can be dated back to the ancient Olympic Games, but the rise of athletes as celebrities took off in the early 1900's. Athletes began to be used to market cigarettes and cigars, inside the packs they used to include some of the first baseball cards. Out of this Idea came one of the most valuable baseball cards of all time with one of Honus Wagner worth well over 500,000 dollars (www.money.cnn.com). By 1975 with the rise of color TV, celebrities appeared in one out every eight advertisements. The more technology grew the more we were able to know about celebrities wh…