Running Naked Through Paris for Sponsor Money

I’m in Winnipeg for a speaking gig, so posting will be light for the next couple of days. I spotted this charming story in the paper (I forget which one) this morning:

As the global economic downturn begins to impact on the world of sport, one French athlete has come up with an unusual way to try to secure a new sponsorship deal. Pole-vaulting champion Romain Mesnil, whose contract with the sports brand Nike was not renewed when it expired last year, has run naked with his pole through the streets of Paris and posted a video of his caper online.

Mon dieu! Here’s the video. It’s safe for work, as there’s a little hovering black box over his viande et deux légumes:

I hope that he doesn’t already have a sponsor, and this isn’t just some clever reverse-viral-video campaign to ‘find’ the sponsor.