Cheating the Brand or the Fans

Being a sports star brings with it fame, great responsibilities and of course miraculous money-making opportunities. Many of us would like to be in this perfect setting until we satisfy our money munching habits, which would be NEVER.

How do sport stars earn mind boggling incentives? It is, undoubtedly, because of the brands that lavishly dispose of large amounts of cash, on sports stars, to increase brand popularity.


In the commercial world, everything has a price and so do sport stars, which are regularly “Purchased” for corporate benefits. Nevertheless, sponsoring a quality sports star is an expensive affair and their success in every event is eagerly anticipated to fulfill the ROI forecasted by a brand.

However, it is quite contradictory when sports personalities get away with bad behavior or indiscipline. But if they are blessed with enough talent to shoot a perfect goal or bowl at 150 KPH, fans are more likely to forgive their slip-ups. The interesting part is that brands are still willing to pay sky-high sponsoring price just to associate their name with any of their merchandise.

change the brand

Nike, recently took a strong action, after learning that Lance Armstrong “drugged” his seven Tour de France titles. The company announced that they are disaffiliating the brand and the Livestrong line of apparel and shoes from Lance Armstrong which was heavily endorsed by him.

Lance Armstrong not only crushed Nike and his fans but this mistake also cost him a whopping loss of $75 million in a day. Fans are emotionally involved with their favorite sports personalities and brands benefit from this involvement. This is why as a mishap occurs, brands are quick to dissociate themselves with the involved celebrity or face the wrath of his/her fans.

“Doping” is an issue for which you not only get stripped from all your income platforms but are also slapped with a massive lifetime ban, making you a sad story. It is evident that doing drugs is a major “No No”.

In conclusion, when public figures are tagged as cheats, that’s the time the magic spell is lifted and the brand has no option but to come up with the most suitable crisis management solution.