10 Endorsement Deals That Went Wrong

BANGALORE: A lot of companies boost their sales and popularity by endorsing celebrities or famous sportspersons. These endorsement deals are also a huge income generating source for the endorsers, whoever they may be. The problem though with having celebrities endorse products is that the media is always after them and when these celebrities get in to a scandal or make headlines for poor behavior it hurts the company.

At times so much so that companies have seen losses and will need to completely revamp their image. Well here are some endorsement deals that went very wrong.

Kate Moss and H&M: The glamorous British model had quite of a downhill with endorsements when the ‘Daily Mirror’ tabloid in U.K had a front page picture of her snorting cocaine. Many companies distanced themselves, including the likes of Chanel and H&M, dropping her from their ads and campaigns back in 2005.

These endorsements were worth $7 million at the time of the scandal, but she didn’t lose much as Yves Saint Laurent continued to support her. She still is a top model in the world and is earning millions from endorsements. It is reported that her earnings have actually doubled since the incident. 

Michael Phelps:  The Olympic medalist and also a champion in the swimming world was a multi brand endorser. In 2009, pictures of him smoking pot were circulated and because of which he lost a few contracts especially with the morning breakfast cereal company Kellogg’s.  

His contract with AT&T was not renewed as the company did not support such acts, though they didn’t speak out harshly about his life and instead focused on the interest of the company. These endorsement deals which ended did not really hurt him as other companies like Subway, Speedo and Visa continued to support the swimmer.

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