lukerguy":128gbf06 said:
It's the bare minimum required to be able to appear something that you're not. Which I think is the deeper root issue here. People aren't really sure who Russ is, and he always seems to want to appear something he's not. Just ask Doug Baldwin....
Ehh, I think instead is that people very much do think they know who he is, and more importantly, LIKE who they think is.
If that's all identity branding (i.e. the aforemented right hand and left hand) or a sincere depiction of who he is doesn't much matter, IMO.
Instead, the "problem" he has is that he has a couple business ventures (the white bread balls and the polo shirts) which introduce suspicion about about his public presentation of himself that wouldn't otherwise exist.
I think the Wilson that's visiting children's hospitals is the Wilson that everyone wants to believe in, but the Wilson who uses the same logic, words and straight face about "doing good" to co-brand white bread and launch a nakedly profit driven clothing businesses introduces questions (for some) about the child-visiting Wilson that don't otherwise exist.
In his business ventures Wilson basically falls into an uncanny valley; claiming do-gooder as a market position for what comes off as naked proto-libertarian profit-driven motives.
Basically, I think there's some mismatch or incoherency between the way Wilson goes about some of his business side ventures and who everyone likes to think he is.
With Jordan, who presented a brand identity of charismatic everyman while actually being a pretty awful person, there never really was any inconsistency in how he presented himself. There was a huge disconnect between his brand identity and who he really is, but his brand identity (nice guy apolitical corporate shill) was always very coherent.