The NFL is in major face-saving mode this week as it reels from the aftermath of Ray Rice’s leaked elevator video and his subsequent ousting from the league. On Monday, the NFL suspended the running back indefinitely and his team, the Baltimore Ravens, released the player from the roster.
So now, the league that has worked so hard in recent years to boost its brand with female fans has to take a step back and re-examine those campaigns (NFL’s “It’s My Team” courted women, the NFL launched a pink breast cancer campaign and has aggressively marketed its sport in women’s magazines such as Marie Claire). If the statistics are correct (the NFL’s director of sales told Ad Age that 45 percent of the NFL’s fan base is female), the league has some major rebranding to do.
“It’s bigger than just sports,” said Gene Grabowski, a senior strategist at Levick, told Ad Age. “The NFL has to be mindful of the example that it sets and very mindful of how it polices its players and teams.”
Arguments abound as to whether the NFL knew more about the scandal than they initially let on, saying NFL commissioner Roger Goodell didn’t truly take disciplinary action until after the video of Rice assaulting his then fiancee, now wife, in an elevator leaked online. This was especially problematic for some fans when Cleveland Browns receiver Josh Gordon was suspended from the league for a full year after testing positive for marijuana - the comparison did not look good for the NFL. Things took a turn for the worse on Wednesday when news broke that an NFL official may have received the full video of Rice and his wife as early as April, according to Variety.
But it’s more than just a PR crisis, says Adweek, adding that Rice’s original punishment of a two-game suspension has been criticized as tone deaf and insulting to those female fans who watch the football league week in and week out.
Read more at Ad Age and Adweek.
Brief Take: The league and its sponsors have to do more than just hope that this scandal starts to slip out of fans’ memories as the season progresses - it may be time for a major rebrand, of both company and policy.
[Image courtesy of NFL’s “It’s My Team” campaign]
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