Subway’s Pace Says Brand Remains On Plan With Michael Phelps
By Terry Lefton, Editor-at-Large
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Pace Says Phelps Still
Remains In Subway's Plans |
For the first time since the media maelstrom surrounding Olympian Michael Phelps smoking pot flared, Subway's CMO Tony Pace has addressed the situation directly, telling SportsBusiness Daily/Journal that the QSR chain is keeping its endorsement deal with the swimmer who won eight gold medals at the '08 Beijing Games. "We still believe in Michael Phelps and we still think he can be a big asset to our brand,'' Pace said yesterday. "He's not just a swimmer; he was THE story at the Beijing Games. He's still an Olympian beyond all Olympians.'' Pace said he had talked to Phelps several times last week and was satisfied that Phelps was contrite.
NO PLANS TO DROP HIM: Contradicting some published reports that broke Friday, Pace said that Subway never had any discussion about dropping the swimmer from its athlete endorsement roster that also includes Phillies 1B Ryan Howard, Spurs G Tony Parker, NASCAR driver Carl Edwards, Fox' Michael Strahan, and the ubiquitous Jared Fogle, who is often paired with Subway's athlete endorsers in TV ads. Phelps signed with Subway last November and shot at least one spot late last year in Boston with Fogle. Pace would not put a precise timetable on when Subway will use Phelps in its marketing, but a source close to the deal said Subway "never planned to use him [in ads] until May or June at the earliest. It's not being delayed. No one with a national footprint is going to use an ad with swimming in it until it gets warm in most of the country.''
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: The media feeding frenzy caused by a photo in a British tabloid of Phelps toking on a bong has exploded since the picture appeared Sunday, Feb. 1. Google last night listed 3.9 million citations for Phelps+bong. However, some read the media frenzy as a positive sign for Phelps’ endorsers. "Phelps is a once-in a-lifetime guy, so I would say his phenomenal popularity -- even now -- outweighs most of the recent negatives, because many consumers will write this off as youthful indiscretion,'' said Doug Shabelman, who marries athletes and brands as President of Burns Entertainment & Sports Marketing, Evanston, Ill. He did admit that there are issues, “If you are marketing to kids, this is a real problem,'' Shabelman said, and added he recently had to explain Phelps' problems to his seven-year-old daughter.
STANDING BEHIND THEIR MAN: Other Phelps sponsors, including Visa, Speedo, Omega, and Hilton, have issued statements of support. Kellogg's failed to renew its Phelps deal, but with the cereal company previously dropping its USOC deal, that pact was unlikely to continue. Without commenting directly on Kellogg's motives, Pace said "Our deal [with Phelps] was always about using him after the Olympics. That is still our plan.''
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