It's not just the banks and carmakers that are suffering in these turbulent markets. Take pity on poor sports athletes, whose once-lucrative endorsement deals are getting torn up faster than a decal-littered race car flies around a NASCAR oval.
Leading the pack was General Motors
Now landing with both feet on the court is basketball phenom LeBron "King" James, who finds Microsoft
In reality, shareholders ought to be asking management and their boards just what the heck they're doing squandering their money on such agreements in the first place. I never once bought a ticket from Continental Airlines
Sometimes, there is a rational relationship between the company and the athlete. For example, you can see the symbiotic nexus between LeBron James and Nike
But with all of the tenuous relationships that do exist between corporations and their celebrity endorsers, no one should be surprised by the chutzpah at Citigroup
All too often, these endorsement contracts amount to little more than a case of executives wanting to rub elbows with celebrity superstars. Now as companies struggle to remain solvent, it's a good time for them to re-evaluate the contracts they might have been too embarrassed to back out of before, and stick to their knitting of providing goods and services that consumers want to buy. Leave the celebrities on the field and on the court, and keep them out of the executive boardroom.
