Sink Or Swim: Did Octagon Mishandle Phelps Situation?
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Octagon Reportedly Offered Phelps Writing A
Column In Exchange For Hiding Photos |
PR industry experts said that U.S. Gold Medal-winning swimmer Michael Phelps' reps at Octagon "did a big belly-flop when they tried to stop" British tabloid News of the World from running photos of Phelps allegedly smoking marijuana, according to Dan Mangan of the N.Y. POST. Octagon reportedly "tried to kill the piece by saying" Phelps would write a column for the paper in the lead up to the '12 London Olympics. Octagon in a statement said, "The characterization of the conversation between Octagon and News of the World is misleading. ... We have no intention of getting into a shouting match with a tabloid" (N.Y. POST, 2/3). NEWS OF THE WORLD’s Georgina Dickinson in the initial report wrote Phelps’ aides "went into a panic over our story and offered us a raft of extraordinary incentives not to run the bong picture." Octagon VP Clifford Bloxham “offered us an extraordinary deal not to publish our story, saying Phelps would become our columnist for three years, host events and get his sponsors to advertise with us.” In return, Bloxham “asked that we kill Phelps’ bong picture.” Bloxham said, “It’s seeing if something potentially very negative for Michael could turn into something very positive for the News of the World” (NEWS OF THE WORLD, 2/1).
COVER UP WORSE THAN THE CRIME: In DC, John Feinstein wrote Phelps smoking marijuana and "getting caught may be dumb, but trying to cover it up is beyond stupid." Feinstein: "What were the Octagon people thinking?" Phelps' agents are "smart guys," so "how could they not know the oldest saying in the Book of Screw-Ups: 'The cover-up is always worse than the crime.'" The "worst part of the cover-up is that Octagon was clearly concerned with one thing: how would this affect Phelps's endorsement contracts." Phelps' reps at Octagon in their "zeal to make every buck they can possibly make, have tried to turn him into Captain America, the symbol of all that is right with sports" and the U.S. But they need to "lay off and just let him be who he is: a well-raised young man who, like a lot of well-raised young people makes an occasional mistake" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 2/2).
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