Endorsing The Competition Is Foolish!

Ah summer…the season of hot dogs and competitive eating contests.

Professional competitive eating events are run by Major League Eating, the sanctioning body that oversees, regulates and organizes events and TV deals. The guys who run it took over publicity for Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest.

On ESPN, no less!

Now meet Joey “Jaws” Chestnut. He’s a competitive eater, ranked first worldwide by MLE, and holds the Guinness World Record of eating 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes.

I’m ill at the mere thought.

Only 16-time champion Chestnut ran afoul of the rules when he accepted sponsorship from Nathan’s competitor Impossible Foods. Impossible Foods makes plant-based franks, and their advertising targets meat-eaters.

Nathan’s was not pleased.

Mr. Chestnut’s name is arguably better known than the contest’s, so it’s debatable who needs who more. At this writing, the two parties are negotiating terms for him to appear at this year’s event.

The situation reminds me of when pop icon Britney Spears signed an $8 million deal with Pepsi in 2001, only to get fired after she was caught on camera drinking a Coke. Apparently, she also took Pepsi’s money and invested it in Coke stock.

The same thing happened in reverse to soccer star Ronaldinho, who was being paid $760,000 to endorse Coke…only to take a sip of Pepsi at a press conference.

Oops!

Looking at it from the sponsor’s perspective, I can’t say I’d disagree with any of them. After all, they’re paying big bucks for these endorsements, and they justifiably expect these celebrities to deliver.

And the celebrities should only be endorsing organizations that they actually agree with…though that’s probably too much to hope for.

All of which boils down to this: If you’re thinking about hiring someone to endorse your product or service, don’t be overly dazzled by the big name and do your due diligence in advance.

Because with cameras hiding around every corner these days, it’s virtually guaranteed that someone supporting the other team is going to be caught. It’s sure to be loud, embarrassing and will cost everyone both money and credibility.

Besides, catching these things in advance is sure to be less humiliating than having your celebrity saying to some reporter, “Oops! I did it again.”

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

Beat the competition at www.marketbuilding.com.