Word Watch: Extreme



April 28, 2001

BOB GARFIELD: In one of the first hundred days interviews Matt Lauer of The Today Show asked President Bush if the energy crisis and rising gas prices could leave Californians stranded in the dark on the side of the road? The president responded this way:

PRESIDENT BUSH: I think you just laid out the extreme; I'm pretty confident you have.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Politicians may see only the dark side of extreme, but the young and the restless rebel in the label as Tony Maciulis notes as part of our Word Watch series, marketers are going to extremes with the word "extreme!"

TONY MACIULIS: Extreme anchor woman Diane Sawyer kicked off a new game on Good Morning America this week.

DIANE SAWYER: Of course you know about our fantastic extreme urban sport challenge that starts in New York City today.

TONY MACIULIS: In the last few years, the buzz word "extreme" has made its way from Wayne's World--

MAN: Extreme Closeup! Wahhhhhh!!!!!

BROOKE GLADSTONE: -- to the weather report.



WOMAN: Extreme weather has been causing havoc in the Midwest and Northern Plains.

TONY MACIULIS: The current usage of "extreme" began in the early 1990s to describe high octane sports like BMX biking or stunt skateboarding. The activities are actually called action sports, but as ESPN programming honcho Ron Semiao explains, one omnipresent adjective has captured our attention.

RON SEMIAO: The word, you know, while certainly overplayed and overused, is, is -- you know made its way into the lexicon signifying, you know, on-the-edge, ultra-hip, ultra-cool, maybe a little bit of danger there.

TONY MACIULIS: And a lot of style -- from spiky haircuts to cargo pants -- it's a lifestyle that appeals to many teenagers and college students. In other words, Generation Y Digs Ex. And these young adults are the most attractive consumer demographic. Last year this segment of the population spent over a 140 billion dollars. For a piece of that pie, advertisers are willing to go to extremes. ESPN's Ron Semiao.

RON SEMIAO: The increased acceptance of action sports and the influence that these sports and their athletes and their lifestyle have on contemporary youth have created a vehicle for advertisers who, you know, are - want to market their product to the younger demo.

TONY MACIULIS: ESPN was quick to "rip major air" as the skateboarders say. They developed the Ex Games in 1995 -- a kind of edgy Olympics with an MTV sound track. [MTV STYLE SOUND TRACK] Last year the event drew 55 million worldwide viewers and nearly a quarter of all teenagers in the U.S. Now, through its new network, ESPN II-- the sports giant is devoting over 700 annual programming hours to action sports, a division they call EXPN. Nissan has developed the Ex Terra - a sports utility vehicle targeted at 20-somethings and the Sundance Film Festival has even gotten in on the action.

ANNOUNCER: So buy a ticket and grab your popcorn and pick a seat while we see some celebs celebrate extreme partying--

TONY MACIULIS: But not everything "extreme" goes the distance. Take the XFL -- Please! Backers thought that just hanging an X on it would draw big young adult audiences, but counter-intuitively the Wall Street Journal reported that the XFL's audience of 12 to 34 year old males was usually the smallest among all demographic groups. This demonstrates that successful extreme marketing involves a mix of athletic challenge and youthful imagery and music -- not violence and brute strength. Steve Astephen is the agent to 30 action sport athletes. He says that fans turn away when "extreme" means tasteless.

STEVE ASTEPHEN: That's another part of that "extreme" thing -everybody thinks it's tattoos and earrings. I mean that's just not it at all! Most of these guys are very healthy. They use trainers. You know they work to get where they're at. You can't just do what they do if you're unhealthy.

TONY MACIULIS: Well not physically unhealthy.

MAN: I said baby this is a 99 X Games! Yeah!!!! [LAUGHTER]

TONY MACIULIS: With those words of inspiration, the athlete dons a helmet that reads: No Regard for Personal Safety and hurls himself onto a street luge moving at 50 miles per hour down a concrete hill one inch above the ground. For On the Media, I'm Tony Maciulis in New York.