The Brett Favre Sponsor Deathwatch Begins as Wrangler Dials Back Ads
Could Brett Favre have put Wrangler in a worse position? The Minnesota Vikings quarterback is accused of -- literally -- being unable to keep his pants zipped and Wrangler, of course, sells pants. Most people don't care about Favre's private life, and he is the perfect rugged all-American to front the Wrangler brand. Eventually, this will all go away.
But currently, every ad that shows Favre in jeans starts a conversation about what's inside those jeans, which Favre allegedly sent photos of to New York Jets "sideline reporter"/Playboy model Jenn Sterger.
That's why Wrangler appears to have cut its Favre ads from rotation inside NFL programming, although he remains in the company's ads in smaller, non-football venues.
The fallout for Favre's sponsors will not be pretty. The Remington rifle company announced a "multi-year" sponsorship of Favre in 2008, but the football star is nowhere to be found on Remington's web site right now.
Favre remains front and center on the Snapper mower site ("Mow with Brett!"), but how long he'll stay there is anyone's guess. Can either Remington, a maker of phallic shooting objects, or Snapper, a maker of power tools that has a made-for-punning brand name, withstand the avalanche of jokes that will occur if Favre ever schedules a press conference to apologize to his family? It would have been a lot easier on all these brands if Favre had been caught doing a couple of lines of coke in a nightclub bathroom.
The NFL's security department just started to investigate the incident and Favre said he would cooperate, upping the scandal's status from "blog post allegation" to "official NFL investigation." Sterger has kept quiet so far -- if you assume it's somehow not her who leaked her voicemails and photo/text messages to Deadspin. But the husband of the masseuse whom Favre is also accused of contacting for an extracurricular rubdown seems rather more animated about extracting an apology from Favre.
Favre's previous clients include Nike, Starter, Smart Car, Prilosec and MasterCard, but don't expect any of those to go near him again until he's either cleared or the dust has settled.
Not helping matters is Jimmy Johnson, who thinks Favre should be benched (from the team, not his contracts). Johnson, of course, is the current pitchman for Extenze, a pill that absolutely will not make your penis larger no matter what their ads say.
And finally: Here are two headlines that signal the media frenzy that awaits the day any of these allegations are confirmed:
- Bleacher Report, Oct. 16: Brett Favre Scandal: Let's Not Compare Favre to Tiger Woods
- Bleacher Report, Oct. 16: Brett Favre Scandal: Will Athletes Ever Learn From Favre, Woods?