Cover Girl / NFL = PR Nightmare

The NFL's oafish response to the Ray Rice elevator tape has led to a national outcry against the league's leadership and the culture it has allowed to fester. It was only a matter of time, really, before this became a PR nightmare for its many sponsors and partners. The latest? Cover Girl, the "official beauty partner" of the NFL.

Last year, CoverGirl teamed up with the NFL to launch a line of nail art called "Fanicures." This year, they expanded that partnership by creating a series of "official team makeup looks," fantastical and bright colors applied inventively and advertised with the motto "Get Your Game Face On." The company pimped it on its Facebook page, on Instagram, on Twitter, and even made an entire board of NFL makeup looks on Pinterest. Every team.Including Ray Rice's team, the Baltimore Ravens. Fans excited about Girling the hell out while cheering on their team could find all of the looks on Cover Girl's special NFL Game Face website.

Except today, that website is nowhere to be found. Is the page that overloaded with gawking makeup fans, or is Cover Girl rethinking its partnership with the NFL?

The above image, taken from a Cover Girl ad and altered to be an anti-domestic violence message, went f*cking bananason Twitter this weekend. It's hard not to notice the unfortunate timing of a partnership between a makeup company and a sports league that has for years ignored its domestic violence problem. Makeup, after all, has been a long time go-to for survivors of domestic looking to cover up bruises and contusions.

The image was paired with the hashtag #GoodellMustGo, a reference to the NFL's bumbling meathead of a commissioner, who fucked up so royally at every juncture in dealing with the Ray Rice case (and other domestic violence cases involving currently active NFL players who abused their wives off-camera). #GoodellMustGo was also emblazoned across large banners and flown over multiple NFL stadiumsyesterday.

Still, as of four days ago, the campaign lurched on.

I don't envy Cover Girl's marketing department today.

MIA Sued For $16.6 Million By NFL For Middle Finger At 2012 Super Bowl Halftime Show

The NFL wants British artist M.I.A. to pay the league $16.6 million for giving cameras the middle finger at the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show.

M.I.A. flipped off 167 million viewers during her performance of "Give Me All Your Luvin'" at Super Bowl XLVI, an incident for which the NFL took her to arbitration.

The league previously demanded $1.5 million from M.I.A., alleging that the singer violated her contract when she unleashed her middle finger upon the world.

Amazingly, the league is now demanding an additional $15.1 million in lost advertising sales, a claim that doesn't appear to have any basis in reality.

"Now the NFL has added an additional claim, seeking $15.1 million more in 'restitution' as the alleged value of public exposure she received by appearing for an approximately two minute segment during Madonna's performance," THR reported. "The figure is based on what advertisers would have paid for ads during this time."

M.I.A.'s lawyer, Howard King, released a lengthy response to the new charges, slamming the lawsuit on the grounds that it was simply "transparently an exercise by the NFL intended solely to bully and make an example of Respondents for daring to challenge NFL."

King's primary argument against the arbitration is that the NFL already had a terrible reputation, and M.I.A's behavior should have therefore been expected.

He wrote that the NFL encourages "profane, bawdy, lascivious, demeaning and/or unacceptable behavior by its players, team owners, coaching and management personnel and by performers chosen and endorsed by NFL to perform in its halftime shows."

King used several examples, including Michael Jackson (1993 halftime show), as the "NFL was fully aware that Jackson was going to engage in such 'genitalia adjustments' in his performance."

King also pointed a finger at Prince (2007 halftime show), whose "oversized shadow was shown caressing the neck of his stylized trademark guitar... as if stroking an erect oversized phallus."

VIA

NFL Mascots meet Star Wars

More HERE Via twentytwowords.com

Haute Couture Helmets

See all and BID on Helmets HERE

NFL’s Super Bowl weather plan includes rescheduling game

As the prospect of a cold-weather Super Bowl becomes less abstract and more real, the league could find itself in a real bind if a major winter storm hits New York/New Jersey in early February.

And if on February 2 Parsippany Phil can’t see his shadow because he can’t get out of his burrow because it’s buried under two feet of snow, the league has a plan in place.

According to Gary Myers of the New York Daily News, the NFL is prepared to reschedule the game.

“[I]f it’s necessary due to matters of public safety or there are impracticalities, then rescheduling scenarios have to be considered,” executive V.P. of events Frank Supovitz said Wednesday.  “Saturday would be as early as we would consider at this point.  We have contingencies that take us into Monday and Tuesday.”

As a worst-case, last-ditch plan, the game would be shifted to the following weekend, which also happens to be the first weekend of the Olympics.

“There are postponement scenarios or rescheduling scenarios for 256 regular-season games each year. Same thing for Super Bowls since the beginning of Super Bowls. We’ve had those in place,” Supovitz said, via Myers.  “The fact is we’ve been in cold weather cities before, we’ve been in situations where snow has fallen ahead of the Super Bowl.”

He’s right, but the Super Bowl always has been played in a dome when the Super Bowl has been played in cold-weather cities.  For Super Bowl XLVIII, there’s a chance the same kind of storm that prompted the NFL in December 2010 to move a game between the Vikings and Eagles from Sunday night to Thursday night, prompting former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell to declare that America has become a “nation of wusses.”

That development prompted yours truly to ask the NFL if the blizzard from three years ago would prompt any second-guessing of the decision to play a Super Bowl in the elements in early 2014.

“No,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said at the time.  “We are the ultimate reality show.”

Aiello said Thursday via email that the NFL will make any necessary decisions regarding Super Bowl XLVIII based on the circumstances that may arise.

Still, with hotel prices jacked up and ticket prices already exorbitant, delaying the date of a Super Bowl creates all sorts of inconveniences and expenses for folks who plan to attend.  While a certain amount of “buyer beware” applies to anyone who buys tickets to any open-air event in a place where “four seasons” means something other than a musical group fronted by a small Italian man with a piercing falsetto, attending a Super Bowl entails an extreme investment of financial resources.

The mere possibility that weather could compel a rescheduling of the game suggests that maybe the game shouldn’t have been scheduled for a place where it may need to be rescheduled.

VIA PFT

NFL Sparks Fan Displeasure by Banning Purses at Games

The era of the purse has come to an end—at least when it comes to lugging around stylish handbags to an NFL game. 

Yahoo! Sports spotted a new policy the NFL is imposing around the league next season, and one that is sure to draw the attention and ire of anyone used to bringing a purse to a sporting event.

Read more here, with complete rules