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Spinning The Phelps Issue One More Time…

The NBA, perhaps the most image-conscious of all the sports today, announced Friday that they have promoted Kathy Behrens to the great new title of EVP, Social Responsibility and Player Programs. It is greatly ironic that the new title comes the same week as most of the sports marketing world is discussing the “social responsibility” of Michael Phelps, the brands around him, those who sculpted his image and what lies ahead.. Thursday Christine Brennan in USA Today had a great piece on who is essentially guiding Michael Phelps with his social moves…and her answer was it appears like no one close to him is willing to publicly step up and say he was wrong. Michael Wilbon and Sally Jenkins in the Washington Post both jostled back and forth on the Phelps social responsibility side, with Wilbon coming down on the discipline side, while Jason Whitlock on Fox Sports.com had a great piece on the sports double standard, or lack thereof, with regard to Phelps in light of other athletes and people in the public eye. Some have asked where is his management company to take a stand, when they were so outfront when Phelps was signing deals after Beijing? So last night the third party who could take a public stand and is associated directly with Phelps, USA Swimming, came forth with their three month ban and clearly explained their position on why this is more a social issue than a marketing one. It was a good, safe public move for USA Swimming, considering Phelps won’t swim anyway until after the three months (akin to suspending a baseball pitcher for the three days between starts but still sending message to the general public). The other “public stance” was taken by Kellogg’s, who has already ended their USOC relationship and whose actual deal with Phelps was up at the end of this month. Again, the brand spun their stance correctly for themselves, telling the general public that they denounced the stars’ actions but never really disclosing whether or not they were going to renew their deal anyway. So who ultimately has the biggest social responsibility factor with all this? Michael Phelps himself, who appeared on TV last night and answered the questions again about his role, didn’t hide and will have to face the music himself with his own future actions. Now would his management company, Octagon, step up and take a stance? In a time when every dollar is important and the long term “cred” with athletes is probably more important than a short term slap on the wrist for a client, the answer is no way. Does that mean Octagon has not worked behind the scenes to find third parties and negotiate deals to minimize damage and get everything back in order? No it does not. So as the court of public spin plays out with Michael Phelps, what is next? Ironically as we said earlier in the week this may open him up for some additional deals with a little edgier side, and it plays already to a great comeback story for a guy who hasn’t lost anything athletically and may have his best days ahead of him in the pool if he chooses. We end up with wrist slaps, a show of solidariity by those brands like Visa who have invested heavily and a great big hold of the breath to make sure that Michael Phelps inhaling and exhaling stays in the pool and not around a bong going forward. Would some have liked to have seen others chastise Phelps publicly? Probably. But although it may make good moral sense, it certainly wouldn’t make good business sense to be so outfront. Once again it will be interesting to see the long term outplay after such a whirlwind short series of moves that got swimming more exposure in February than it has ever gotten before.

Some other good reads…NASCAR’s hard push back to the forfront continued with a great USA Today cover story on Joey Lagano, one of the brands’ great new marketing faces… the New York Times has a good feature on M.I.T. hoops star Jimmy Bartolotta… Media Post has a good look back at the online buzz created by Super Bowl ads…and the Rocky Mountain News has a piece on the demise of yet another sports brand, the Continental Basketball Association.