Rod S. asked, about the Canon post: "What's a Rebel? or What is this 'Rebel' of which you speak? It's a purely American thing, you know. Those cameras are called other names everywhere else in the world. I guess the label appeals to an element of American folklore. Or the 1959–1961 television series. Or both. Your thoughts?"
Mike replies: Here's the story as I heard it in the early '90s. I can't reveal my source, but it came from a guy who should know, a highly placed Canon USA employee at that time. Canon—through the same guy, as I recall—later officially denied the story. So do note that this post would not get a pass from the fact-checking department.
The original Rebel came out in 1990. Most professionals when the original Rebel came out shot with Nikon, which had been the leading high-end camera brand for many years and was the overwhelming choice of pros. And this led to an embarrassing little problem—a lot of the pros Canon hired to shoot their advertising campaigns shot them with Nikons! Ouch.
So evidently Canon went looking for a pro who actually used Canons. October 1990 was three and a half years after the launch of EOS, which initially cost Canon some goodwill among its established customers, because of the lensmount change which made all the old FD lenses obsolete. But by 1990 the advantages of EOS were beginning to kick in and Canon was starting to rebound. Eventually, of course, it would overtake Nikon and become the choice of many pros as well.
In 1990, 20-year-old Andre Agassi, with his leonine mane of golden hair (which later required hair weaves and clips to maintain because of his encroaching early-onset baldness), was literally and figuratively the golden boy of the tennis circuit. In 1986 he was ranked 91st in the world; in 1987, 25th; and in 1998, 5th. Tennis players tend to burst on the scene brash and aggressive because they're so young; they're immature when we first get to know them, and we don't find out their real character until they've been around for a while. It's hard to recover the moment now, but in those days the old customs of the genteel English game still held sway. Many earlier players at that time had tended to kind of push against the tradition of wearing all-white on court. Andre, at least the way I remember it, was the first young player to flout that tradition completely, unapologetically wearing boldly colored outfits on court*. He got a lot of criticism about it, and he didn't care—he did what he wanted and let his racquet do the explaining.
And it happened that one of the few top sports pros who used Canon cameras at the time happened to shoot a lot of tennis, and had a lot of pictures of Agassi in his portfolio, and had a very good relationship with Andre. And that's why Andre was chosen to be the spokesman for the new entry-level EOS.
So, Andre Agassi was the rebel. The name of the camera came from Andre, not the other way around. And Andre was chosen to be the spokesperson because a top Canon-shooting pro had access to him.
And if you want an international twist, Rod, Andre's father was an Iranian Olympian.
Here's a question that might stump even our Commentariat: who was that photographer? Anyone know who shot the first Rebel campaign with Andre Agassi? I don't recall. It would be interesting to hear what he has to say about this story, if he's still alive these 33 years later. I'm sure he knows a lot more about it than I do.
Mike
*After weeks of speculation in the press as to what he would wear on court at Wimbledon in 1991, he went against all expectations and wore all white.
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Worth mentioning Arthur Ashe wore yellow in his Wimbleton final in the seventies.
Posted by: Dennis | Saturday, 04 March 2023 at 01:52 PM
Andre Agassi was not the first tennis champion to be enlisted to a camera sales campaign. In 1978 Australian top pro John Newcombe was Canon's pitch man for the earlier AE-1 camera. The sales pitch was good enough that it got me to buy an A-1 and a 35mm f/2 lens in 1980, with my third paycheck out of college.
Posted by: Tippler | Sunday, 05 March 2023 at 05:43 PM
The Canon naming and differences between US and rest of world naming were one of the reasons that kept me from selecting Canon cameras in the mid-00’s when I was using the internet to research my first SLR purchase. Eventually went with Nikon, which took me through the journey from film to digital, but have since moved on to Fuji.
Posted by: ChrisC | Sunday, 05 March 2023 at 10:59 PM
I think the photographer who shot the Canon Rebel Campaign with Andre Agassi was Caryn Levy. She's retired now, but she still has a website. carynlevy.com You can also find her profile on LinkedIn and more of her work on Getty Images.
Posted by: Beau Camel | Monday, 06 March 2023 at 03:45 PM
Picking up on Beau Camel's pointer to retired photographer Caryn Levy:
Caryn Levy's website carynlevy.com has a full-page Canon advertisement for the Canon Rebel X with an expressive Agassi right there on the 'tearsheets' page.
Posted by: Rod S. | Wednesday, 08 March 2023 at 12:45 AM