Kobe Bryant and Nike

Paper Summary:

Nike hired Kobe Bryant, a popular Laker's basketball player, to promote its products due to his modest, low-key style, contrasting with his team?s extraordinary athletic success. However, the recent allegations regarding sexual assault made about Bryant in the media and through the judicial system have completely altered Bryant?s image. This paper offers a proposal on what to do when the celebrity spokesperson, hired by a company executive, undergoes a rapid and unexpected change of image in the context of the modern media because of circumstances beyond company control.

From the Paper:

"The "data" accrued in such a case is difficult to pinpoint in a graphic format. Since the evidence regarding the night in question and the woman who is making the allegations varies from day to day, it is difficult to quantify what sort of an impact these allegations can and would have on future sales of Nike. What is clear, however, is that Bryant is no longer the man whom Nike hired. Sadly said, even if completely innocent of the allegations, the new data disseminated in the media shows him to be either a complicated martyr figure at best or at worst, a guilty man of a horrific assault. The fact that Nike also has a substantial line of clothing specifically targeted at women, usually making use of powerful and athletic women in its promotional material, makes the sexual nature of the allegations a particular concern."

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