Short Skirts, Sugar Highs, and Semi-Finals

The top-selling caffeine bomb known as Five-Hour Energy must have been taking notes. After all, their latest advertising campaign has ditched the staid librarian spokesperson sitting on piles of alleged survey results in favor of a tweaker wannabe who damn near claims to have created heaven and earth in only one ambitious morning.

Could this be a sassy reaction to the tennis sensation known as Maria Sharapova and her latest marketing blitzkrieg?

Credit the hot Russian for backing up everything she does. Her blistering backhand and accompanying signature squeals have vaulted her into yet another Grand Slam semi-final in this year's Australian Open. It's hard to criticize a winner, even if she's doing it amidst serving the world a confection called Sugarpova, a new line of high-octane candy targeted to young girls, and attracting cameras of all ilks while doing it in short skirts both on and off the court.

No one says role models have to be politically correct. Sharapova's hearing it from the usual objectors about promoting unhealthy, fat-padding products, but she has no incentive to listen. After all, she got lollipops as a treat after good practices when she was a young, impressionable protegé. It didn't seem to do any damage to her fine form in any fashion, so what's the problem? Maybe she's just being realistic.

Hershey's chocolate and Toblerone have used foxy models for years to hawk their guilty little pleasures. It's not a stretch of the imagination to think they they all indulged in those products at some point in their lives, and yet all clearly went on to become camera candy themselves. In fact, the only plump spokesmodel for chocolate is that little brown M&M with luscious lashes who wears even less than Sharapova and even she looks good doing it.

Snickers was an Olympic sponsor. It's not a reach to think a high percentage of athletes enjoyed one or two of them at some point in their training. Compare a Snickers bar to a serving of Sugarpova:

Sharapova has emerged from rehab for a collarbone injury with a relentless drive to the semi-finals, which included a straight-set dispatch of Venus Williams. She did it without playing a single set of competitive tennis between recovery and the Open. She did it while taking time to promote the Sugarpova launch. And she probably did it while enjoying a bag or two of the product herself.

Could it be that it's all part of an active, healthy, and ambitious schedule? Could it be that she takes her life seriously and her pleasures in moderation? Could caring parents concerned about obesity in their kids -- not to mention themselves -- take a hint in the bigger picture this role model actually represents?

Maybe if more of them did, Five Hour Energy would slide down to the lower shelves. And Sharapova would have even more competition from young girls ... on and off the court.

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