Eli Manning: He Needs To Pump Up (His Personality)

I find it fascinating that people think that Giants quarterback Eli Manning would automatically get big endorsements should he win the Super Bowl. He shouldn't.

Not that I'm saying he doesn't deserve it, but if I'm a marketer of a company considering him, I don't hire him without pumping up his personality a bit and a couple acting lessons.

Manning has definitely taken a ride on the coattails of his brother Peyton, who over the years has actually become a fairly skilled athlete in commercials. But I'm not too confident that Eli can make the cut at this point. Though he did show some potential in this NFLShop ad.

And I don't think he's that bad in this horrible idea of an ad for Oreo.

How tough is it to act? Not too tough and many athletes that have been classified as dull have proven that they can be in a good ad with a good script. But I don't think endorsements are an entitlement of winning a Super Bowl.

Super Bowl Ticket Prices--The Update
As usual, I've been getting many questions aboutSuper Bowl Tickets. StubHub.com is reporting that the average ticket price on their site is currently running at $4,370. But it's interesting to note that the company says that at this point last year, tickets for last year's game (which ended up averaging $4,004 per seat) were higher than that.

Just to get another ticketing site in here--I often use StubHub data because I believe they have the most volume--TicketsNow.com says its tickets are averaging $4,447 per seat. And that it sold one seat for $13,905.

While I'm on the Super Bowl, make sure to check out our special this week on the Patriots and owner Bob Kraft. The show is called "Touchdown! The Patriots and the Business of Winning" and it first airs this Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on CNBC.

Ivanovic-Sharapova Australian Open Final
In what I think is the most marketable matchup of women tennis stars, Serbian Ana Ivanovic is playing Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open Finals tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Watch it if you have nothing else to do. Put it this way--it's going to be the first tennis match I ever TiVo.

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