When a celebrity messes up there’s usually a hefty price to pay.
Paula Deen’s racial slur cost her dearly in corporate sponsorships.
Paula Deen has seen her future earnings prospects dim after her admission of using a racial slur. She lost her show. Several retailers have stopped stocking the celebrity chef’s products. However, Deen has also lost lucrative endorsements with casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp (NASDAQ:CZR) and packaged pork products producer Smithfield Foods, Inc. (NYSE:SFD).
She’s not alone.
Several notable celebrities have found themselves booted from endorsement deals after running afoul of public opinion.
Let’s go over five athletes, athletes, singers, and models that have paid the price for messing up.
Tiger Woods
Loyalty is a big thing in sports, so it wasn’t a surprise to see the public sour on Tiger Woods after he was caught having affairs with several different women.
The popular golfer’s wife eventually left him, but corporate sponsors bailed even earlier.
Tiger Woods was dumped by his wife and companies like PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) when he was caught cheating.
Corporate consulting giant Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) and Gillette razor parent The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) picked up their caddy bags and walked away from Woods. PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP)‘s Gatorade also ended its relationship with Woods, though the beverage giant suggested that it was not going to renew its deal with the golf master anyway.
The one corporate giant that stuck around was NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE).
Earlier this year NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) even put out a new controversial ad with “Winning Takes Care of Everything” as a tag line. Was NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) taunting those that knocked Woods after his infidelity? NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) generated more than $725 million in golf-related gear last year. It didn’t want to dismiss the game’s most prolific and marketable player.
Kate Moss
Supermodels rarely have it as good when it comes to corporate sponsorships as Kate Moss did in 2005.
She was the face of H&M, Chanel, and Burberry, but all three fashion-forward retailers and brands dropped the waifish model after photos of Moss snorting cocaine made the rounds.
Kate Moss has kept her girlish figure but lost her role-model status when she was photographed snorting cocaine.
Drug use isn’t an automatic deal-breaker. Subway stuck with Michael Phelps after the Olympics swimmer was photographed inhaling pot through a bong, even though Kellogg Company (NYSE:K) moved to remove Phelps from Corn Flakes boxes. Trippy musical artists are unlikely to be marked down for dabbling in illegal narcotics.
However, Moss was held to a higher standard as a role model for young girls. The brands had their reputations to protect.
Gilbert Gottfried
Twitter may seem to be a harmless platform, but a lot of damage can be done in 140 characters or less.
Just ask Gilbert Gottfried. The comedian’s distinctive grating voice has earned him some pretty sweet gigs as a voice actor. He was Iago the parrot in The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS)‘s Aladdin. He was also the voice of the AFLAC Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) duck, at least until he posted some insensitive tweets in the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami of 2011.
Ouch. Edgy comedians are known to cross the line, but the problem with Gottfried’s barrage of ill-advised tweets that belittled the Japanese casualties is that AFLAC Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)’s biggest insurance market just happens to be Japan.
Lance Armstrong
There’s nothing as vile in the sports world as cheating, and that’s exactly what happened to cycling legend Lance Armstrong when he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
Lance Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing, career-destroying drugs.
He lost fans. He had to relinquish Tour de France titles. However, the collective sound of disillusioned flinging off their Livestrong bracelets wasn’t lost on the many companies that relied on Armstrong to pitch their products.
NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) — despite standing by Woods after his extramarital dalliances — dumped Armstrong.
Why did NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) stand by Woods and so many other athletes that have proven socially mortal but distance itself from the disgraced cyclist? Cheating. Cheating on your spouse is bad for your marriage, but cheating in your sport is bad for sports.
Britney Spears
When you’re being paid to promote a product it helps if you’re not consuming a rival’s offering.
Pop goes the contract: Beyonce took over for Britney in PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) ads. Photos showed the former Mouseketeer imbibing The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) and not PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP), who paid her to be in its ads.
Britney Spears starred in PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) ads until she was replaced by Beyonce in 2002. Pepsi executives weren’t happy to see photos of her with The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) products as they were paying her good money for PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) ads.
She’s not the only one. Actress Charlize Theron was not only dismissed but also sued by designer watchmaker Raymond Weil after she was seen in public wearing a Christian Dior timepiece.
PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) will argue that it didn’t fire Spears over the photograph. Her contract was up. Her record sales and popularity were slumping in 2002, making the switch to the then rising Beyonce an easy call. However, it certainly didn’t help that Spears was being snapped by paparazzi holding a Coke can.
The article Paula Deen-Like Disasters: 5 of the Biggest Celebrity Endorsement Flame-Outs originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Rick Munarriz.
Rick Munarriz owns shares of Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS). The Motley Fool recommends Accenture, Aflac, Coca-Cola, Nike, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of Nike, PepsiCo, and Walt Disney.
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