Get branding down to a tea or pay price
OOPS! HE did it again. Remember the Prime Minister’s disastrous 2020 association with Yorkshire Tea? Rishi uploaded what he hoped was “down with the peeps” footage of himself cosily drinking a mugful of the steaming brew. Instantly, the company distanced itself from the then MP for Richmond, Yorks, issuing a statement insisting that it had no particular relationship with Sunak and that its fragrant brew is enjoyed by Rosie Lea drinkers of all political persuasions and none.
In other words, Yorkshire Tea eschewed a Rishi endorsement. The executives clearly didn’t think Sunak’s brand of celebrity would enhance sales, and possibly feared the opposite. Marry the wrong famous person to a brand and the results can often be falling figures, reputational damage and plummeting product prestige.
The same celebrity-to-brand dissonance occurred back in 2002 when soap star Danniella Westbrook saw fit to appear in public togged top-to-toe in logo-embossed Burberry. Not content to sport the brand herself, Westbrook pushed her baby daughter Jodie, similarly attired in a matching Burberry baby buggy.
Burberry’s top brass were no doubt aghast. They wanted their clothes to be aspirational, posh and pukka – not worn wall-to-wall by tabloid-fodder EastEnders actors.
Brands will pay top dollar to land the “right” famous face to plaster over their ads. The problem is that they can’t pay undesirable faces to stay away, or ask them not to purchase their garments with their own honestly-earned cash – or indeed, not to spritz themselves with their fragrances.
As you read this the negative Rishi effect is likely sending ripples of fear through Adidas’ boardroom. Adidas Sambas were proclaimed the “sneaker of our age”: cool, chic, understated and hankered after by all. That is, until Sunak was pictured wearing a pair at a Downing Street tax policy interview on Thursday.
FROM that moment the must-have trainer dive-bombed from the top of the wish-list to embarrassingly undesirable. Indeed, poor Rishi looked uncomfortable in them. Lacking the ease and swagger of the sportsmen and rappers who have ambled about bringing cachet to the brand, the Prime Minister looked awkward and self-conscious, as if he’d been handed a pair by a stylist and told to go forth.
Adidas should rejoice, nonetheless.At least they’re not anarchist band Chumbawamba, trying to stop New Zealand’s deputy prime minister Winston Peters using their 1997 hit Tubthumping – refrain, “I get knocked down, but I get up again...” – to rouse the crowds at his populist rallies.
Rishi might well go back to Converse trainers – but Peters isn’t budging.