Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps has his own marketing guru. And why not? This record-shattering American hero is worth even more millions now than he was after Athens in 2004. The ethics of sports figures making zillions really isn't the point of this post, rather, it's the interesting take on the brand Michael Phelps as recently reported by The Associated Press.

Hype, Buzz, Press, Boost, Plug, Talk - all powerful words for advertisers. The old adage says that talk is cheap, and we concur. In fact, the best talk is free! Getting it, however, is another story.