Dive Brief:
- The NFL is going on offense to counter media coverage in the New York Times about concussions and the long-term harm they cause pro-football players, according to the Wall Street Journal.
- The campaign included banner ads on the Times’ website as well as social media promotion on Facebook and Twitter.
- The NFL was directly acting in reaction to a particular Times story that ran last Tuesday and was highly critical of how the league office has handled concussion research, the Journal reported.
Dive Insight:
For a public relations move, directly challenging an investigative report released by a respected media company carries some risk. The NFL has taken some image hits recently with what has been perceived as poorly handled responses to domestic abuse allegations, and other seemingly arbitrary investigations and punishment for other league issues. Even before this latest article from the Times, the public perception of how the NFL is handling concussions is mixed at best.
“We wanted readers to have all the information about all the work that we’ve done to improve the safety of the game,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the Wall Street Journal. “We were concerned that our message was being mishandled by the Times.”
Meanwhile, last week at The Economist's Marketing Unbound marketing conference, when asked about the NFL's handling of scandals, CMO Dawn Hudson simply told the audience that, "When there's turmoil and change, people are more receptive about doing things differently," but that "marketing can't own reputation."
Even with the controversy, the NFL remains a very popular vehicle for marketers from the Super Bowl to just tapping into its massive real-time audiences throughout the season. The two most popular primetime TV shows last year were both NFL properties – Sunday Night Football and Thursday Night Football.