If you want Katie Taylor to win Gold, and are of a nervous disposition it may be best to turn away now…
Procter and Gamble is the world’s largest advertiser and one of the Top Olympic Partner sponsors paying a reported €100 million or more to be associated with the games.  It owns many of the world’s best selling brands from Fairy washing up liquid to Olay, Max Factor, Pampers and Gillette.
It also has a poor rate of success with the mega successful athletes it chooses to front its campaigns.  This is important to Irish ambitions at the Olympics as Katie Taylor is one of those upon whom the company has pinned its hopes.
Back in November 2009 Gillette ran a campaign featuring three of the world’s best known and most successful athletes.  Roger Federer stayed at the top of his game but did go two and a half years between Grand Slams ahead of this year’s Wimbledon.  Thierry Henry’s reputation took a dive as a result of a handball we are all too familiar with and Tiger Woods; well let’s just say that his chin was the least of his problems in the immediate aftermath of the campaign.
Of course these things are all just stuff and nonsense but take a look at the roster of stars which the company has pinned its hopes on for London 2012.
Mark Cavendish has been the ambassador for Head and Shoulders Shampoo, featuring in multiple print ads over the weekend booked to coincide with his expected Road Race gold on Saturday.  That didn’t quite work out and the brand manager will have sweated a little more on Saturday when his poster boy in the US, the seemingly untouchable Michael Phelps proved that no matter how much ‘confidence he washed in’, time was waiting around for no one at the Games.
Another sporting legend around whom public acclaim would surely gather was Paula Radcliffe.  With a profile to fit foursquare as a marketing dream, Radcliffe was shouldered with the burden of promoting Fairy and Pampers.  Unfortunately she will have more time for both after being forced to withdraw from the Games with a foot injury.
Taylor’s legendary focus and strong support will not let such superstitions and bad luck get in the way of her preparation, but by the time she climbs into the ring next weekend, we might just hope that one or two of Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Ennis will have earned the acclaim that home hopes have for them…
View all the latest news on the commercial side of Irish sport
Find out more about how Sport for Business can be of benefit to you
Subscribe today for the free Sport for Business daily news digest