Archive for 'Sports/Entertainment'
Celebrity Endorsements Still Work!
Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by briankoeberle.
In the wake of the Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger scandals, some corporate marketers may be shying away from
using a celebrity as a spokesperson for their product or service. They may view the risk of some untoward actions off the field as too great to offset any goodwill generated by a celebrity endorsement. But that type of knee-jerk reaction appears to be short-sighted at best. An examination of successful celebrity endorsement campaigns proves that brands can indeed be built successfully around a celebrity
Ask yourself, where would Nike be today without Michael Jordan? Or Mr. Coffee without Joe DiMaggio pitching the brand? And who hasn’t witnessed the impact of a celebrity endorser such as Peyton Manning for such iconic brands as MasterCard and Sony?
A few years back I partnered Chicago Bears Legend William “The Refrigerator” Perry with a seafood company to help launch their new Monster Size Fish Fillet. The pairing of an athlete nicknamed the “Fridge” (with an apparent monster-size appetite) with a Monster Size Fish Fillet product was a believable, credible endorsement and an innovative way for the company to launch a new product.
One of the main points to remember is that athletes and celebrities are human beings, prone to the same lapses of good judgement as anyone. The key is to plan an exit strategy should the celebrity bring negative publicity down on the brand. For example, I signed Ben Roethlisberger when he was a rookie with the Pittsburgh Steelers to his first endorsement deal for “Big Ben’s Beef Jerky”. We had a great 5-year run with the product, but after his latest off-field incident in Georgia, we felt it best to terminate the contract by invoking our “morals clause”.
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The Case of the “Famous Chicken”: Pay Attention at Baseball Games!
Posted on 21. Sep, 2009 by briankoeberle.
It has been a long-standing doctrine in sports law that spectators at a baseball game assume the risk of potentially getting hit by foul balls. The application of the assumption of risk doctrine thereby serves as a complete bar to recovery for damages caused by a foul ball. This doctrine has even been extended to hockey games and errant hockey pucks that fly into the stands. But what about the scenario where a fan is distracted by the antics of a mascot and gets hit by a foul ball? Well, this exact scenario played out in Dayton in 2007 during a minor league baseball game. A fan attending a Dayton Dragons game was hit by a foul ball and knocked unconscious. She claimed she was distracted by the antics of the “Famous Chicken”, a nationally known mascot who was hired by the baseball club to provide entertainment during the game. The injured fan ended up suing both the team and the Chicken, arguing that they were both negligent in conducting this type of entertainment during a baseball game. The injured fan was ultimately denied relief under the assumption of risk doctrine. The court held that it is common knowledge during baseball games that foul balls are hit into the stands, and that patrons at such games assume the risk of being struck. Furthermore, evidence at trial showed that the team undertook to give several warnings to fans, including three announcements that were made over the loudspeaker “that spectators should be on the lookout for foul balls.” Courts like warnings. The moral of this story is that you can have your chicken and eat it too, but pay attention during the game!
