Who do you sponsor in the Post Lance era?

[TubularBills]

if you were Nike, Trek and Oakley Who do you sponsor in the Post Lance era and an atmosphere of doping fireworks? Which Individual(s)/Team(s) and Why? Is Cycling Celebrity endorsement dead? Too much risk... Specialized seems to be doing just fine...

"If it weren't for the cancer angle, many sponsors would have dumped Armstrong already. Contact has been made from Armstrong's people to sponsors already, with two main points (my wording, of course):

1) Armstrong's image will pull through; even if some bad juju comes to light, we're playing dirty too, and the brand will survive. Remember, "Cancer!"; and

2) If you drop Armstrong, your company loves cancer, and we'll let the public know that." .... from the Support Lance Thread (comment #97 from Jimmypop

Wow, If I was a CEO and received a threat from an athlete who is in the crucible and under a microscope - I'd call it a day, revel in the past profits, and sign the dissolution paperwork stat.

Agreed. I can't see any CEO of the large and fairly large companies that sponsor Big Tex being remotely intimidated by any sort of thinly veiled "blackmail by bad PR." Any of these companies, Nike and Oakley in particular, can squash Tex and what remains of his image like bugs if they decide it's time to do that. And frankly I do think he'll be thrown under the bus by his sponsors before this is all over but we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

 

[Vonn Brinkman]

Oh, Nike, Trek and Oakley would easily find someone else.
And otherwise they would start sponsoring the other Armstrong (Kristin), which is quite easy, they only have to change the pictures of their ads.
Or they would begin to sponsor cross-country skiing, enough EPO in that sport as well