The behavior of celebrities may end up with contracts millionaires

The famous luxury house of Christian Dior is the latest company to have learned its lesson, having signed away from Sharon Stone as the face for its line of skin care products in China, after the actress Tuesday publicly declared that the devastating earthquake was result of "bad karma" from the country's sad record on human rights in Tibet.

Of course, Stone is not alone. For every Tiger Woods, a Kobe Bryant. In the wake of allegations that the basketball star of the Los Angeles Lakers had violated a young man of 19 years, its image has been withdrawn from major campaigns McDonald's and nutella. The Nike retained the contract with Kobe, but began to use it less. The charges were eventually withdrawn.

The supermodel Kate Moss lost advertising campaigns with H & M, Burberry and Chanel after the British tabloids have reported in the autumn of 2005 she allegedly consumed cocaine. Since then, Kate Moss and reconquered recovered an impressive array of advertising contracts, including one with Burberry. Bryant and Moss recovered fairly quickly, but the lessons are.

Regardless of how ideal it may seem an advertising contract with a celebrity for a specific brand, nobody can predict what can happen then.

At a time when we live in a culture based on celebrities, it is difficult to find a launch of a new product that does not have a great name attached to them. All people want to be like the beautiful people, doing what they do and wear what they wear. But where there are opportunities, the danger also watching.

"The truth is that all people say and do stupid things," states Noreen JENNEY, president of Celebrity Endorsement Network based in Los Angeles. What is wrong with celebrities is that the news flow quickly. "Mal just say one thing and now walks through the mouths of the world. It's not that they do something that the rest of the world do not, what happens is that when they say something, the world is listening to."

Given this scenario, Dior's contract with Sharon Stone concluded in the autumn of 2005 seemed the perfect marriage. Still sexy at 47 years, Stone was an ideal model for the Capture line of anti-aging cream company.

Claude Martinez, President and CEO of Parfums Christian Dior, told Vogue at that time that "Sharon Stone was chosen by the charm which have spread worldwide as a slim and attractive women in their 40, who is intelligent and independent."

Maybe too smart and independent. Dior had to go the way of damage control after the comments from Stone at the Cannes Film Festival, issuing an apology and withdraw it immediately from their ads in China.

The Chinese authorities said they will ban all her films in the country, and posters with his picture were allegedly torn from citizens in fury. Ironically, Stone has just reported that it will buy a house in the Chinese Riviera with her boyfriend who will serve as a basis for their journeys around the world. "

The frankness of celebrities in advertising contracts have a disadvantage in relation to finance. The Dixie Chicks learned that lesson five years ago when the popular country music band has a large decline in sales of albums and tickets for the concert after one of them have told a London audience shortly after the start of the war in Iraq, which were "ashamed" by President Bush be originating from your home state, the Texas.

The sponsor of his tour, the Lipton, withdrew a television ad that had planned and dropped the plans he had to use the images of the band in bags of rice, although the company has continued to give his name to the tour.

"Nobody wants to see his name tarnished with the brushstrokes of political celebrities," says Robert Passikoff, president of BrandKeys, a firm assessment of marks, with regard to the problems of Dior with Sharon Stone. "Especially when the position can not be defended." The lessons for marketers: Buyer, beware.

For the guys in advertising contracts, Michael Jordan is more a lesson. At any one time asked him why they avoided supporting a Democratic candidate for the Senate who tried to rob the place the Conservative Jesse Helms in North Carolina, and he gave an answer that has become famous "the Republicans also buy tennis."