Tiger and Rooney cheat and lose, the saga of athlete endorsement deals
Major corporations are always taking out endorsement deals with the biggest athletes in the World to try and sell more products. They become a huge promotional avenue for the companies and they use the athlete’s star persona to increase their revenue and
profit streams.
But with the increased scandals that numerous athletes are embroiled in at the moment, companies are getting scared and want to protect their brands.
An endorsement is defined as a written or spoken statement from a celebrity or famous individual giving a testimonial about a certain product or brand.
Over the years the trend of using celebrities such as movie stars and pop stars has become very popular and a lot of famous people can be seen as the face of a popular watch brand or backing a famous alcoholic beverage.
Now days the trend has evolved to increasingly use the world’s top athletes in advertising and marketing campaigns to endorse various products and brands.
David Beckham could be seen in advertising billboards in Calvin Klein Underwear, Cristiano Ronaldo is the face of Clear Shampoo, Anna Kournikova is the face of almost everything and the greatest golfer ever Tiger Woods has earned the most amount of money
out of them all through various sponsorship deals.
In recent times though, a large number of famous athletes have become embroiled in high profile scandals. A lot of athletes seem to get themselves into trouble by cheating on their partners.
This not only has the potential to ruin their lives, their careers, their public perception but also their huge endorsement deals. Not too many companies want to see their wholesome, well cultivated brand images ruined by an athlete’s scandalous affairs.
Companies want to sell more of their products, so they hire athletes to become the brand ambassadors of these products. The rationale behind this strategy is that the more famous an athlete is and the more they win championships, the more the company will
be able to sell its products. But this sometimes backfires when the athlete starts to lose games or does something stupid like have an affair.
The whole cycle stops dead in its tracks if an athlete is in the news for all the wrong reasons. If a sports star is suddenly splayed across the front page of all the tabloids in a country for his part in a scandal; that will negatively affect the brand
perception of a product and the company behind that product. This has been acutely felt by two athletes recently, Tiger Woods and Wayne Rooney.
Tiger Woods was at the centre of a huge s*x scandal involving various women whom he cheated on his wife with. This led to him being dropped by a number of his sponsors including Accenture and AT&T. He actually felt a 10% drop in his yearly earnings because
of it but other sponsors like Nike stuck by him. The other athlete, who has been involved in a recent extra marital affairs scandal, is Wayne Rooney.
The football superstar was alleged to have had s*x with a prostitute while his wife was pregnant. This led to him being slated in the press and by his fans. His on field skills were also affected and he did not look like the same athlete he was before the
scandal.
A recent news item has appeared which claimed that the bosses of Coca-Cola in America have decided to drop the Manchester United star from a new brand campaign. Rooney was all set to launch a new advertising campaign for Coke Zero and he had a huge multi
million pound deal in place. After the s*x scandal hit though, he seems to have lost this endorsement from the huge soft drink company.
It seems to be a mystery why so many famous celebrities and athletes do strange things and engage in behaviour that may compromise their futures. They do not seem to understand that one silly mistake can ruin a career and can also see a big reduction in
earnings.
It is also very bad for the companies that are sponsoring them because they risk losing customers and might even see a fall in positive brand perception. Hopefully athletes will realise that it might be in their interest not to fool around and stick by their
partners for a multitude of reasons.
Tags: