Less than 24 hours after he was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl, weight-loss program Nutrisystem has ended its endorsement deal with Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor.
From TMZ.com:
TMZ spoke to a rep at the weight loss company, who told us, “We are shocked and saddened by these very serious allegations against Lawrence Taylor.”
The rep added, “Based on the severity of these allegations, Nutrisystem has made the decision to sever our relationship with Mr. Taylor effective immediately.”
And Nutrisystem really does work fast — they’ve already replaced Taylor’s image on their website with slimmed down San Diego Padres star Matt Stairs.
We saw it happen to Michael Vick, Tiger Woods and now Lawrence Taylor. Companies know that some people in our society wake up in the morning ready to be offended about something. On a whole, we are uptight, sensitive and defensive and people expect big companies to act swiftly when it comes to breaking off endorsement deals, whether the athlete or celebrity has been convicted of anything of not.
That said, I’m not suggesting that Nutrisystem shouldn’t have dropped Taylor. Obviously a company doesn’t want to be associated with a dog fighter, someone who cheats on their wife or a potential rapist. But I do find it interesting that companies are acting quickly when it comes to dropping endorsers that get into trouble. I think it’s a good thing, but I also believe it speaks to where we are as a society (i.e. act now, think later).
Photo from fOTOGLIF
