Oscar Pistorius had both of his legs amputated when he was eleven months old. He is world famous for running in the 2012 Olympic Games in London with two prosthetic legs. He is South African and runs the 400 m. He has a very inspirational story and also had a key role in Nike's advertisings campaigns. There is a poster ad of Pistorius that says "I am the bullet in the chamber". This refers to him shooting out of the starting blocks like a gun. There was also a television ad ran in 2008 featuring him lining up at the starting blocks. While he is lining up, there are sounds playing of a gun being loaded. The point of the commercial was to say that your body is a weapon. As of today, these ads are in very bad taste.
Oscar Pistorius was arrested today for the murder of his girlfriend. The girlfriend was killed with a gun. Pistorius is the only suspect as of now and he has been linked to domestic violence before. Nike cannot help but be embarrassed and regretful that they ran two ads featuring Pistorius that both had gun related themes. Obviously they couldn't have predicted this but it surely is an odd coincidence.
Wow, this was a pretty heavy story. It's crazy to see such an inspirational person take such a awful turn for the worst. In terms of marketing, things like this seem to be inevitable for companies who chose to endorse athletes and public figures. These companies, like Nike, take a person's public persona and use it to market their product. If the person who is being advertised is such an incredible athlete or displays some sort of inspiration for others, they seem to harness that positive light and use it to put a good view on whatever product they endorse. But when that same figure does something tragic or horrible, that also will get associated with the company that endorsed them. This seems to be a recurring pattern for Nike especially. Between Tiger Woods and Pistorius, using these public figures seems to be quite risky. Great post though! Excellent example of a marketing tragedy
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