Russell Hantz: H vs V - Villain

[ActMax]

Trusting Russell with charity money is a little like trusting a convicted terrorist with nuclear materials. Just a little uneasy about the situation IMO. Knowing how he is only interested in things that help/effect/promote Russell Hantz, just don't think its a good idea. I wouldn't trust Russell as far as I could throw him with anything or anyone. When a person lies without even thinking about it, and when its not even necessary, I just don't trust that that is not going to equate into his everyday life as well. Trusting Russell with charity money? No thanks.

[BritLit]

Right after the Samoa finale, Russell set up that website, asking a "million fans" to send him a dollar each, to compensate for his been unjustly deprived of the Survivor million. There was such an outrage, that after a few days he changed it to say that "some" of the money he'd donate to charity (no specific percentage stated). The tee shirts and hats revenue to be given to St. Jude's only came later, probably after a PR person gave him some advice. Considering that Russell has claimed to be a fireman saving lives in Hurricane Katrina, among other things, I personally would be very leery of sending him any amount of money with the expectation that it would wind up anywhere but in his pocket. Since he doesn't claim "nonprofit" status, I'm not even sure whether there's a regulator with the power to audit or oversee any money generated.

[ironcat]

[QUOTE=march;3909230;][QUOTE]
The fact that self-centered, mean-spirited, lie-telling, boastful, arrogant Russell Hantz/

So it's ok for people to call Russell names but when he does it during the context of a GAME it's not ok? Just trying to make sue i have this straight.

It's perfectly okay for him to call people names within the context of the game, but he shouldn't expect them to then want to turn around and award him a million dollars. I'm sure none of the posters who are calling him names or insulting him here are expecting him to do them any favors either.

The fact that Russell started doing his "charity work" as a method of damage control for his outrageous initial attempt to get strangers to award him a prize he didn't deserve speaks for itself as to his "humanitarian" inclinations.

[CuckoosNest]

It's very obviously (that the donation to St. Jude's is) 75% of the sale of the shirt.

But it ISN'T very obvious at all. Russell says 75% will be donated to charity... but he doesn't clarify - again ANYWHERE - what that "75%" is exactly. It could very, VERY easily be 75% of the profit margin on the shirt... which means RH still keeps 25% over cost. Which, in turn, means he's making money on a so-called charitable donation. And since he hasn't divulged a single record regarding this, how are we not supposed to expect the worst? I mean, let's be honest here... the guy doesn't exactly have a personal record of putting others ahead of himself.

What the hell are you talking about? Of course it's his money, people bought something some from his website. So it's effectively his money before he donates 75% of it to the charity.

The point that you're missing here is that if no one buys a t-shirt, then RH isn't on the hook to make a donation at all. Not a penny of the donation is originating from his own pocket... it's originating from the pockets of the people buying shirts from his website. And by your own admission: he's making money on the shirts, then donating 75% of that... which means he's still making money on the deal. Wow, how "charitable." "Profiteering" is the better term here.

If he was such a humanitarian, he'd just donate some the 1.7M he supposedly made last year, without the bait-and-switch of people buying product form his website. He hasn't done that. And again, there's no actual record of ANY money ever making it to St. Jude's, t-shirts or otherwise.

You're looking at this completely the wrong way. Russell wants people to buy a shirt, hat, whatever, supporting him. Then he donates a majority of the proceeds to charity. It's a way for him to promote himself and help others.

You know what? A charitable donation shouldn't be connected to promoting yourself. It should be about helping others, not about plastering your image on a bunch of cheap t-shirts. And it certainly shouldn't be about making money while you're giving it away.

(The cross) can have different meanings to different people is what I was getting at.

...and I'm still waiting to hear what some of those "different meanings" are. As far as I know, the crucifix is referencial to faith in Christ or a Christian religion, and nothing else. That said, I'm dying to know what special meaning it has for Russell Hantz that means he can act the way he does and still consider himself a "good Christian."

The fact that self-centered, mean-spirited, lie-telling, boastful, arrogant Russell Hantz...

So it's ok for people to call Russell names but when he does it during the context of a GAME it's not ok? Just trying to make sue (sp.) i have this straight.

"Self-centered", "mean-spirited", "lie-telling", "boastful" and "arrogant" are adjectives, not names and not slurs. And considering Russell's words and actions - both during and after both seasons - it's clear that all of those terms describe him pretty well. In case you need proof:

Self-centered: "I'm RUSSA HAYNTZ!!!"
Mean-spirited: "You're a dumb-ass, Rupert."
Lie-Telling: "I swear on my kids lives..."
Boastful: "I'm the best player ever!"
Arrogant: "I'm RUSSA HAYNTZ!!!" (Worth repeating, as he said it at least three times this season.)

[norealityhere]

I'm confused.
Who paid for the T-shirts to begin with?
Was it Russell's money, or where did that money come from to begin with?

[CuckoosNest]

I'm confused.
Who paid for the T-shirts to begin with?
Was it Russell's money, or where did that money come from to begin with?

Russell (or a Russell-owned subsidiary) no doubt buys the shirts... but then he re-sells them to the American public, and donates 75% of the proceeds (also known as the profit margin) to charity.

Let me set up a hypothetical situation to make things clearer: Russell buys 1000 shirts at a cost of, say, $10 (which would include the shirt, packaging, shipping, marketing, employee costs, etc.) He sells them all on his website for $20. In that scenario, RH Enterprises had made $10,000 (i.e. 1000 shirts x $10 made on each).

There's three basic hypothetical ways that his "75%" donation could come into play:

1. He could be donating 75% of the sales price of each shirt sold, or, in this case, $15,000. This is best-case scenario for St, Jude's but it's highly unlikely he did this... this would mean he'd have to do some matching out of his own pocket. And it's Russell Hantz we're talking about here... if he were going to be that magnanimous, I'm sure we'd hear all about it. Over and over and over, in fact.

2. He could be donating 75% of the profits, or, in this case $7500. The other $2500 goes into Russell's pocket. Quite frankly, this is how most businesses would do it, and probably the way RH did it, if he made a donation at all. Unfortunately, he's an individual, not a business... if the gesture was truly as swell as he cracks it up to be, it would 100% of the profits (meaning that Russell would break even).

3. He could be donating 75% of the cost of each shirt sold, or, in this case, again, $7500. Which means the RH would, once again, net $2500.

In the end, yes... RH provides layout costs for this little endeavor. But by working in a 75% return to charity, there are lots and lots of ways to make money on the deal. And quite frankly, that's bad.

My hunch to what actually happened was that RH bought a huge quantity of shirts and then sold, like, three of them. Which means he got stung cost-wise, got stuck with a bunch of unsold t-shirts, and the donation was never made. It would make sense since we've heard nothing else about the donation.

In the end, it would just make a helluva lot more sense to just make a donation to St. Jude's directly, and scrub the whole shirt thing. But that's not the way Russell works. If it isn't benefiting him somehow - either making him money or promoting his ego - then he obviously isn't interested.

[ActMax]

I will bet everyone here a million dollars that in a year or 2 down the road, we will all be reading about the IRS coming after RH just like they did Hatch. I can almost guarantee that this will happen, given what happened to Hatch, and given RH HUGE mouth about bragging about his dollars, now this? That big mouth of his is going to come back to bite him, I guarantee it. The IRS watches stuff like that. Hatch wasn't even bragging about the money he made and the IRS still found him.

[jadewarlock]

I will bet everyone here a million dollars that in a year or 2 down the road, we will all be reading about the IRS coming after RH just like they did Hatch. I can almost guarantee that this will happen, given what happened to Hatch, and given RH HUGE mouth about bragging about his dollars, now this? That big mouth of his is going to come back to bite him, I guarantee it. The IRS watches stuff like that. Hatch wasn't even bragging about the money he made and the IRS still found him.

And I have this feeling that if/when this happens, Hantz will have the same curse that Hatch did - making up reasons why he didn't pay, and constantly changing it up based on the wind flow. One of those was suddenly saying CBS had to pay taxes on the appearance fees as well last year, when the day he was arrested afterward he had said it was the million he won on the show earlier and only because it was to keep him "Quiet" about the Stacy Stillman incident.

Add to his assault case, if I were CBS, I'd red flag Russell and ship him off the show. His current mentality would get him removed from the "Big Brother" house IMHO - and I'm saying this with Dick's attitude on the show (mind you - at least he knows the difference between reality and a game, I'm not so sure about Hantz).

[norealityhere]

Russell (or a Russell-owned subsidiary) no doubt buys the shirts... but then he re-sells them to the American public, and donates 75% of the proceeds (also known as the profit margin) to charity.

Let me set up a hypothetical situation to make things clearer: Russell buys 1000 shirts at a cost of, say, $10 (which would include the shirt, packaging, shipping, marketing, employee costs, etc.) He sells them all on his website for $20. In that scenario, RH Enterprises had made $10,000 (i.e. 1000 shirts x $10 made on each).

There's three basic hypothetical ways that his "75%" donation could come into play:

1. He could be donating 75% of the sales price of each shirt sold, or, in this case, $15,000. This is best-case scenario for St, Jude's but it's highly unlikely he did this... this would mean he'd have to do some matching out of his own pocket. And it's Russell Hantz we're talking about here... if he were going to be that magnanimous, I'm sure we'd hear all about it. Over and over and over, in fact.

2. He could be donating 75% of the profits, or, in this case $7500. The other $2500 goes into Russell's pocket. Quite frankly, this is how most businesses would do it, and probably the way RH did it, if he made a donation at all. Unfortunately, he's an individual, not a business... if the gesture was truly as swell as he cracks it up to be, it would 100% of the profits (meaning that Russell would break even).

3. He could be donating 75% of the cost of each shirt sold, or, in this case, again, $7500. Which means the RH would, once again, net $2500.

In the end, yes... RH provides layout costs for this little endeavor. But by working in a 75% return to charity, there are lots and lots of ways to make money on the deal. And quite frankly, that's bad.

My hunch to what actually happened was that RH bought a huge quantity of shirts and then sold, like, three of them. Which means he got stung cost-wise, got stuck with a bunch of unsold t-shirts, and the donation was never made. It would make sense since we've heard nothing else about the donation.

In the end, it would just make a helluva lot more sense to just make a donation to St. Jude's directly, and scrub the whole shirt thing. But that's not the way Russell works. If it isn't benefiting him somehow - either making him money or promoting his ego - then he obviously isn't interested.

Thanks.
I don't really trust the little troll, either.

[lopevian]

I'd love a Russell t-shirt! Thanks for the info, I had no idea. I have a Twila t-shirt. It has an adorable cartoon drawing of Twila, with a bubble that reads "I'll kick that scrawny bitch's ass!". There was no proceed donation involved, and I could have given a rat's butt if there had or hadn't been. Twila could have rolled up my money and smoked it for all I cared. Same will go with Russell. I don't need Russell to make a donation that I can make myself. That's like a "what's in it for me" donation, and I think that takes something away from the donation.

Man, I hope I don't get harassed out-and-about in my Russell t-sirt.