Even before the civil trial where it was determined that he did, in fact, kill two people, there was substantial evidence to any objective observer that Simpson obviously was responsible for the gruesome crime scene at his ex-wife's house. He fled the state the next morning, left traces of his own blood at the murder scene, and even managed to drip his ex-wife's blood into the interior of his vehicle. Meanwhile, as he led California police on a nationally-televised slow-speed highway chase, thousands of supporters came out with signs and banners supporting him. Because he once ran fast holding a ball.
During the time that Simpson was on trial for murder, the public also learned that he had an extensive history of physically abusing his ex-wife for years prior to their divorce and even saw Polaroid pictures of her bloody and swollen face that she had preserved in her safety deposit box for evidence in case Simpson eventually killed her. Instead of rejecting Simpson for being an abuser who killed two people, the public actually embraced him and sought to emulate him even more. News reports showed that many people defended his innocence even with all of the obvious evidence of his guilt. Even worse, sales of anything associated with Simpson jumped so...
dog." Even the expensive shoe manufacturer, Bruno Magli, experienced such a spike in their sales that they were unable to fill the orders until their foreign factories could hire more people to increase production of a product that only a small handful of Americans had ever heard of before. The public first became aware of them only because the prosecution introduced photographs of Simpson wearing the same shoes whose prints were left in the blood at the murder scene.
Obviously, most celebrities never murder anybody in cold blood. However, the O.J. Simpson case (in particular) demonstrates how powerful the culture of celebrity is in the U.S. It seems that the general public cares infinitely more that someone is famous than they do about why that person may be famous. Especially in the case of professional athletes and film stars, once famous for one thing, they are admired for life, regardless of how low their actual behavior falls. In principle, if people are to be admired, they must be admired for their meaningful contributions and not for the most superficial sources of fame.
