One way to get your product a whole lot of attention is to find a way to connect it to a celebrity. Multinational corporations spend a lot of money on advertisement, in an effort to interest more people in purchasing their product. Often, a sports star is sponsored by a particular company. Nike shoes selected Michael Jordan, and that worked very well. However, not all celebrities end up making their sponsor look good. What happens then? Perhaps the answer is something that is being called “disgrace insurance”.
Why would a corporation be interested in getting “disgrace insurance”? Let’s say your global company decided to sponsor Tiger Woods. You spend a ton of money on a variety of advertisements that show Tiger Woods using your product. The idea is to make people think of your product every time they see an image of Tiger Woods on television or on the internet. And, since he is such an excellent golfer, people might decide that getting the same kind of golf clubs that he uses would help them to be better golfers, too. Soon, even people who know nothing about golf, and have no interest in the sport at all, can recognize your brand of golf clubs. Then, in the middle of your ad campaign, Tiger Woods causes a scandal when he admits publicly that he was cheating on his wife. Suddenly, it isn’t such a great idea for your company to be so closely associated with Tiger Woods.
Disgrace insurance is there to help a company rebuild it’s reputation after it is damaged by a celebrity that the company sponsored. It provides funding that can assist a company in creating a new advertisement campaign, perhaps with a celebrity who is looked upon more favorably by the general public at that moment. Interest in this kind of insurance has increased by 30% in the last few years.
Image by Horia Varlan on Flickr