Mike Vick is finding due process….
September 26, 2007
….doesn’t exist in the court of public opinion and/or the world of marketing.
If you don’t know why Vick is in deep trouble, just google his name. He’s going to do some time in the Federal system, the state of Virginia is after him and the lawsuits are starting to drop from the sky.
Vick copping a plea in this dog-fighting scandal may not have ended his career in football, but he’s done as an endorser. But companies sign celebrity endorsers to coat-tail on their popularity and Vick’s has dried up. Even if Vick does his time and emerges with a clean bill of health at the end of all this, he has nothing to offer as a major celebrity endorser.
No company with a mainstream product is going to want to get near this guy. It couldn’t have happened to a nice guy, and it wouldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Vick has become the poster child for bad-as-they-wanna-be “superstar” pro athletes. Now on the backside of his 20s, his public persona is no closer to that of a maturing adult than I am to being named pilot of the space shuttle. And it’s going to cost him millions.
It’s tough out there on Madison Avenue. Some might say dog-eat-dog
