14 DAY TRIAL // Precisely one month ago, football star Wayne Rooney saw his marriage on the verge of dissolution as a woman went to the media to tell how he’d cheated on his pregnant wife with her. Now, Rooney also loses his Coca Cola contract.
It’s not uncommon for athletes or football stars to close very profitable contracts with huge companies, endorsing their products.
However, the terms of the initial deal – be they explicit or not – must be obeyed, as the Daily Mail points out. The same was the case with Wayne Rooney and Coca Cola.
The soft drinks giant, it seems, wanted Rooney for the wholesome family image – and build the entire campaign around that. Now that word is out he’s a cheater, Coke doesn’t want him anymore.
“The image of the 24-year-old Manchester United and England footballer, who earns £600,000 a year in sponsorship from the soft-drinks giant, was set to appear on cans and bottles of Coke Zero in a multi-million-pound ad campaign to run from now until 2011,” the Mail writes.
“Sources in America say company bosses there want to drop Rooney’s sponsorship deal completely because they are concerned that lurid stories about his private life do not tie in with Coca-Cola’s wholesome family image,” the same publication reports.
According to sources, the stories now surfacing in the media about how Wayne cheated on his pregnant wife with a call girl have “appalled” Coca Cola bosses, who are trying to rid themselves of him.
The fact that Rooney and his wife are now trying to salvage their marriage by going to couple’s therapy (as per reports) does nothing in terms of redeeming him with the company.
“Coca-Cola is a family-friendly company and Wayne Rooney was brought on board to appeal to young people – specifically young men and teenage boys,” a well-placed source says for the tab.
“The executives in Atlanta wanted to dump him immediately but his representatives and the executives of Coca-Cola in London begged them to reconsider. In the end, they changed their whole campaign for Coke Zero, which must have cost a fortune,” says the same insider.
“Wayne’s face was going to be on the side of every can and bottle but now it will not be,” the spy adds.
As we also reported a while back, the same happened to golfer Tiger Woods who, after allegations of several extra-marital affairs, started to literally bleed money from lost endorsement contracts.