Popularity
The band became a popular fashion item in the United States by the end of the summer of 2004, especially among those following Armstrong's Tour de France effort. They soon gained popularity worldwide. It first appeared on a majority of the contenders at the 2004 Tour de France. Personalities such as 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, news anchor Katie Couric, actor Matt Damon, and several athletes at the Athens Olympic Games wore the band. Appearances on and endorsements by popular TV shows such as Oprah, also raised its profile enormously.
On an August 2007 edition of the satirical television show The Colbert Report (where Armstrong made a guest appearance), Stephen Colbert parodied the wristband, creating the "Wriststrong" wristband, in his growing campaign against "wrist violence".
In The Office episode "Michael's Birthday," Michael creates a makeshift Livestrong wristband out of yellow paper upon finding out that Kevin is at risk for skin cancer.
In December 2009, Ben Stiller parodied the Livestrong bracelets with the introduction of Stillerstrong headbands to raise money to build a school in Haiti in partnership with Save the Children.
Read more about this topic: Livestrong Wristband
Famous quotes containing the word popularity:
“A more problematic example is the parallel between the increasingly abstract and insubstantial picture of the physical universe which modern physics has given us and the popularity of abstract and non-representational forms of art and poetry. In each case the representation of reality is increasingly removed from the picture which is immediately presented to us by our senses.”
—Harvey Brooks (b. 1915)
“A large part of the popularity and persuasiveness of psychology comes from its being a sublimated spiritualism: a secular, ostensibly scientific way of affirming the primacy of “spirit” over matter.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“The popularity of that baby-faced boy, who possessed not even the elements of a good actor, was a hallucination in the public mind, and a disgrace to our theatrical history.”
—Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)