Should Wrangler drop Brett Favre?
With the quarterback embroiled in a sexting scandal, some commentators predict that his jeans endorsement deal will come apart at the seams
Brett Favre has faced an unwelcome media spotlight ever since the website Deadspin posted lewd text messages and photos that the star quarterback allegedly sent to a New York Jets employee — and now some are wondering how long Favre's lucrative ad deal with jeans label Wrangler will last. A company spokesperson says it's monitoring the situation: "We are following the story like everyone else. We are not making any major decisions on our marketing program until more information is available." Given the nature of the allegations, however, is it just a matter of time? (Watch Brett Favre's Wrangler ad)
The ads should be pulled immediately: The Wrangler spots feature lyrics from "Bad to the Bone" and the phrase "satisfaction guaranteed," says PRNewsChannel, "word combinations that don't play well when you have the Brett Favre sex scandal as a backdrop." Favre "apparently dropped his Wranglers to take the racy photos — or at least that's what the late-night jokes will be," since it's a "punch line just waiting to be delivered." Wrangler finds itself in an unenviable position; "the only thing worse would be if Favre were a spokesman for an underwear company."
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The allegations aren't that bad: Put yourself in [Wrangler's] jeans, says Darren Rovell at CNBC. You've worked hard to connect this athlete to your brand. "And, unlike many of the endorsement deals out there, it fits." Unless real evidence of adultery or a crime emerges, this is, at worst, just the story of "a high-profile man whose over-the-top pickup lines years ago were snagged by the media and put out for all to see."
"Wrangler in tough position with Favre"
The ads are too successfully trite to get pulled: "If you had to explain Brett Favre to an alien," says Andrew Sharp at SB Nation, one of his Wrangler commercials would be a good place to start. This one, for example, encapsulates everything we've come to know and love, or hate, about Favre over the years — "the stupid grin, the random Golden Retriever that he's petting...." Like Favre, it's "brilliantly contrived, tugging at our heartstrings and insulting our intelligence at the same time." So "even if we're coming from different sides of the spectrum, I'm with Wrangler on this one."
"Does the Brett Favre-Jenn Sterger scandal mean no more Wranglers for ol' gunslinger?"
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