Live Nation, Entertainment, and Charlie Sheen Oh My!

What is this world coming too?

The current move by Live Nation to strike a deal with Charlie Sheen has me pondering. Is this a brilliant move to capitalize on what could translate into millions of dollars in revenue, or is the largest live music promoter in the country taking so much of a hit financially that they are desperate to find anyway to make money. I think the answer is somewhere in the middle.

Charlie Sheen is a very interesting “basket case” who continues to somehow capture our attention and infiltrate our daily lives like an infectious disease. Who is “crazier”…Live Nation or Charlie? No doubt, LN will make a large profit on the exploitation of Charlie’s over the top behavior however; they really have only a narrow window of opportunity. History has shown us Charlie’s radically exuberant exploits comes and goes in cycles (very typical to that of your traditional bipolar) with long periods of manias and periods of lows.

The mainstream media and paparazzi do not help this situation either. The more attention you throw at Charlie, the stronger he becomes. My thought is “stop feeding the beast!” if you leave it well enough alone it will go away and then we will be cured of Mr. Sheen.

Charlie is dummy, and he definitely has some very smart people working in his corner. His “marketing and branding” strategies take a page out of the Conan O’Brien playbook. Sheen is fired, joins the social media world and thus amassing a large amount of Twitter followers in a very short time, etc. LN wants to create Sheen merchandise including T-shirts, mugs and other items bearing his new catchphrases like "winning" will be for sale along with the possibility of a live tour. I am confused because this is a live music promotional company what do they know about clothes.

This is the pulse of the music and entertainment business…..still want in?