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When Brands Get Burned
By admins | December 14, 2009
With all the recent press surrounding the Tiger Woods’ scandal, we can’t help but think of the effect it’s having on the countless brands he endorses. This entire fiasco is a PR disaster for the fashion brands associated with Woods. So, what do you do, when your brand gets so enormously shit on, like Tiger just did to all his endorsers? This is certainly not the first time a celebrity has embarrassed a brand by this or her bad behavior, from Kate Moss to Martha Stewart, it is an all too common occurrence. Thank you, Tiger Woods for creating a PR F-up of epic proportions. One of his biggest sponsors, Nike, is famous for their “Just Do It” campaign, which is rather ironic now considering he just did it, and did it again, and again, and again! And what kind of spokesperson is he now, for the venerable TAG Heuer brand? Their slogan sadly is, “What are you made of?” Which we, and no doubt his wife, would like the answer to. Really Tiger, what ARE you made of? Who does that? Of course, there are many who follow the, “any press is good press” mentality. Since we are a design blog and hardly PR experts we are curious; does this motto hold up for brand images and is it supported by an increase in sales? The whole, “as long as their talking about me and spelling my name right” mentality, may work for celebrities and movie promotions, but does hold true for apparel and accessories sales?
This year we had a plethora of celebrities proving to be PR nightmares for fashion brands. One of the most publicized of the year is, father of eight and reality star, Jon Gosselin. Jon is now as famous for his breeding ability, as his love of Ed Hardy T-shirts. For some unknown reason designer Christian Audigier decided that Jon would be a good face for his Ed Hardy brand and even flew him overseas to discuss Gosselin’s design ideas. At the time, the press Gosselin was receiving was daily, if not hourly, and the Ed Hardy t-shirts he was sporting insured the brand constant media coverage. However, as Gosselin turned from America’s #1 dad to America’s #1 douche bag, he took the Ed Hardy name down with him. The brand became the butt of a national joke. Ed Hardy is now synonymous with the unemployed, middle-aged, overweight, media whore, that is Jon Gosselin (along with the desperate, aging, MILF’s who adore him). While Christian certainly got brand recognition from millions who had never heard of Ed Hardy before, was the now tarnished brand image worth all of the attention? Overall, has the Ed Hardy brand seen a rise or decline in US sales since the Gosselin debacle?
Another unfortunate celebrity fashion pairing, is the odd venture of Lindsay Lohan and Ungaro. As we mentioned in a previous post, the decision for an esteemed luxury brand like Ungaro to bring on the hot mess known as LiLo, as not only the face of the brand, but the designer, was a train-wreck waiting to happen. Unlike the Gosselin case where Audigier seems to have cut and run, or the Woods’ disaster where brands are scurrying to protect themselves, Ungaro seems to have embraced this catastrophe. Not only have they kept LiLo on as a spokes person, but they’ve invited her back to design their next collection. What may have seemed like a one time PR stunt gone wrong, appears now to be a long term endeavor to sully the brand’s name indefinitely. So it seems in this case, the press and media attention though negative, has been deemed worthwhile by Ungaro.
As a consumer, how much do brand images effect your purchases? Do you support brands whose spokespeople you find offensive? Would you not buy a pair of Nikes because Tiger Woods is a dirty bastard? Should consumers punish the brand for poor choices made by their spokespeople?
How about taking those questions to the next level. What if it is the brand itself, i.e. the owner or designer who is the problem? For example, Karl Lagerfeld’s recent public comments regarding heavier women not deserving his high-end designer clothing. Or, Dov Charney, the owner of American Apparel, known for exploiting young women in advertising and in the workplace. Or to the extreme, high-end fashion designer and owner of his own label Anand Jon who is also now a convicted rapist of over a dozen girls.
Recently, the Guardian UK wrote the following on the Tiger Woods’ scandal, “The suppress agents behind the biggest stars attempt to keep them hermetically sealed away, trading sycophantic stories off in friendly papers and magazines against bigger revelations elsewhere. But when a damaging story about a celebrity of Woods’s stature breaks, it breaks big because of the scarcity of real information in the vacuum that has been created around them.” This brings up an excellent point; our culture puts celebrities, athletes, fashion designers, and even reality stars, on an unrealistic pedestal. Whether it’s the glamorous persona of a fashion designer, or the wholesome image of a father of eight, it is often just a one dimensional PR creation and not reality. Since people are fallible, (including celebrities) perhaps brands should move away from using their false images to sell products. In a time of paparazzi and 24-hour media coverage, it seems the PR risk for a brand is just too high. If celebs can’t live up to the pedestal we place them on, perhaps they should not be put up there in the first place. Simultaneously of course, they should not reap the financial rewards from marketing their fictitious images.
So what’s your take on brand images? Do these celeb scandals affect how you spend your buying dollar? What would you do if it was your brand in the headlines?
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Topics: PR/Marketing, sales | 9 Comments » 
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December 14th, 2009 at 1:26 am
For Tiger and his sponsors. Break time. No long term damage. 95% of his sponsors will come back in time. Long term income and sponsorship will rise above his current $100mil. Providing he comes back and surpasses Jack Nicklaus’ record of winning 18 Majors. His golf following thinks he’s a badass for bedding 9 chicks.
John Gosselin famous for reality TV, will be gone soon enough. Hopefully he’ll take the blight of bad Ed Hardy designs with him.
Lindsay Lohan is finished as a designer but her career as an actress can recover providing she grows up a bit and chooses good parts. The public knows the everything is fake.
Brands should spend more time creating an authentic experience and spend less time pandering to fame. Ugh.
December 14th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Great post! So disgusted with Tiger, augh!
I totally think brands should focus on the product on stop paying millions to these “celeb” to be the face of the brand!
December 14th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
It is a very precarious line, but I think the brands know how to handle themselves. Even bad publicity is good for something, it is just a matter of using it in the right way. I don’t think Tiger’s screw ups will affect Gilette or Nike in any great way, they are not exactly totally reliant on him, and men will still buy into the image they create regardless of his mistakes.
Euuuurgh and Ed Hardy sucked long before Gosselin came onto the scene, I have always banded them into the same group as Crocs lol.
Anyhoo, hope you’re having a great week.
December 14th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I was hoping you’d give the answer as to how Jon Gosselin affected Ed Hardy sales. Personally I think it had a negative impact. Jon feels Christian screwed him over but Jon should feel good knowing he ruined Ed Hardy for all the cool guys.
I don’t think you can hold Tiger Woods’ actions against Nike unless they continue using him and you feel the need to stop purchasing Nike because they continue to endorse him. I do think if someone fees that strongly about it then they should write Nike and let them know why.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:08 am
I just had a craptastic date this wknd with a golf pro (why me?). Apparently the golf industry “NEEDS” Tiger – according to what this guy said – bc he provides the fanfare, excitement & celebrity to the game.
Wish he could have brought some of that to our date – LOL!
XOXO
Amy
ps – I gifted you on my Friday post, darling!!
December 15th, 2009 at 6:41 am
To be honest I take any media stories about any celebrity with a bucket of salt. The story that paints them as an evil idiot is no more accurate than the stories before that painted them as the perfect family guy. People are just people, with all their flaws, whether famous or not.
I try not to let the “face” of a brand impact my image of it for these reasons. But it’s a shame that brands feel they need to buy into part of a celebrities created image by using them in their promotional material.
December 15th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I have a millions differing opinions from the amount these celebs get paid to understanding that they get paid that much because of how much potential revenue they actually do bring in, etc.. but the truth is they get paid too much and get way too much attention for bad behavior mostly because society as a whole pay too much money and attention to them. The celebrity (or pseudo-celebrity) obsession is alive and well. I guess all we can do is consioucly choose who we pay attention to and where we spend out money and make sure they are people, brand and products that are in line with our personal thoughts / beliefs.
December 18th, 2009 at 8:57 am
I tend to shop a celebrity’s style rather than their endorsed brand. And I think a majority of the public shops that way.
For instance a celebrity is seen wearing rubber boots to a muddy concert. Tons go out and buy a pair of Wellies or equivalent. Another is seen in a Fedora, it becomes a trend. Another celebrity gets pregnant with twins and instead of wearing a mu mu, she lives in halter maxi’s. The rest of the world buys a halter maxi the following year (including me) Then I think to myself, I’m wearing pregnancy clothes lol!
But, wait. There is one celebrity endorsed brand I do buy. My boys covet Micheal Jordan sneakers. I do buy those. And I think each pair is way over priced. I believe I am now funding MJ’s grand kid’s retirement accounts.
Have a great weekend,
Sher
Fashionafterforty.blogspot.com
(I hope I am now too old to even be considered a MILF)
January 14th, 2010 at 6:45 am
Don’t think that brand sales are affected by a celebs scandals because ultimately its the people who decide what they are interested in buying. Thanks for sharing this interesting article.