Avoiding Celebrity Pitfalls

By Michael Willard

The problem with celebrities is that they are fragile. They bend. They break. They become unglued. Such is the phenomenal meltdown with world-renown golfer Tiger Woods last year. Yesterday's saint is today's sinner.

Does that mean companies should shy away from celebrity endorsement?

No, but there are pitfalls. The celebrity can sometimes find himself in an awkward situation that could cause embarrassment and impact your brand. It is important the celebrity and the sponsor know how to react. Tiger didn't. The World class golfer took his own counsel, or he was given world class bad advice. By now everyone on the planet knows the story of how the saintly Tiger was found to have a string of floosies while Mrs. Woods stayed home with the babies.

For a mere mortal, it would be a bad scene, but manageable. However, Tiger was thought to be the boy in the squeaky clean bubble, almost as if he had been raised by Mother Teresa. In late November, this heretofore sponsor's dream acted as if raised by The Madam Teresa instead. 

In Ukraine, my company has had very good luck with celebrity endorsers, with only one minor fender bender having to do with a sports star. We helped launch Ani Lorak eight years ago as a face for Kraft's Korona chocolate brand. The beautiful diva did us and the client proud. 

Early on I engaged Larry Miller, known in the United States as the "clean comedian", for a series of banking commercials shot in Los Angeles.  The co-star of Pretty Woman and later Disney's The Princess Diaries was as good as his reputation.

However, Miller was my second choice. The first selection was noted impressionist Rich Little who at that time was at the top of his game impersonating movie stars and politicians. My creative director had written a series of funny 15-second vignettes to be shot in a single day.

Two nights before we were to board a plane for LA and the shoot, a deputy marketing director gleefully came across a gossip item suggesting there had been a steamy video circulating of Little and his then girlfriend.

Little explained it to me as no more than a temporary dispute and yes, she did have tapes that could prove embarrassing but were not really that scandalous. However, it was a conservative financial institution, and we were asked to cancel the shoot at the last moment. Little, ever the gentleman, didn't charge cancellation fees.

This leads to Willard Marketing Monthly's five rules in working with celebrities who endorse products or services:

1.)    Expect that there is a potential for a high profile celebrity to have a ghost in the closest or a gremlin bubbling under the surface. Don't be na?ve. Everyone is human and everyone has foibles. This is an inherent risk in celebrity endorsements.
2.)    Insist that the celebrity work closely with you, the sponsor, in dealing with the problem immediately. You have a stake in the outcome so don't be a spectator and let events carry your good name along with the flow.
3.)    Don't panic. We suspect that some of those abandoning Tiger Woods now will regret that they weren't more steadfast and participatory.  Tiger stumbled a couple of times out of the starting gate. It doesn't mean he won't win the reputation race if he wises up.
4.)    Get the bad news out early and publically. Don't dribble it out. That can be like water-boarding to a Guantanamo prisoner. Insist that your celebrity spokesperson come clean with the truth and nothing but the truth.
5.)    If your celebrity spokesperson insists on keeping his own counsel and is hurting his own case for redemption, make sure you have a clause in the contract that he or she can be released in such cases.

There are, of course, situations that are not salvageable. The O.J. Simpson murder case comes to mind.

The former professional American football star, movie actor and Hertz Rental Car spokesperson was tried, though found innocent, of killing his former wife and her companion. A civil court later judged him guilty, and he was ordered to pay compensation to the family of the victims. Today, he is in prison on unrelated charges. 

In such situations, cut the ties immediately, and never look back.