Last weekend, as Brett Favre endured the media scrutiny from the fallout related to his his alleged voicemail and textingto Jets employee Jenn Sterger, his Wrangler endorsement was still in full swing.
Although Wrangler's official stance was that they were monitoring the situation, ads for the jeans brand ran in their usual rotation, so much so that it was hard to watch a sporting event last Saturday or Sunday without seeing the spot featuring the Minnesota Vikings quarterback.
Something clearly changed this past weekend, as Wrangler either replaced the Favre spots with spots using its other high-profile spokesman Dale Earnhardt Jr. or ran the Favre spots on niche channels.
The Favre Wrangler spot, which had been in heavy rotation, only ran ten total times on Sunday on smaller niche channels including Versus, FX, Speed and the History Channel. Not a single Favre Wrangler ad aired on an NFL broadcast, according to Front Row Analytics, a sponsorship evaluation firm.
“No brand wants to be embroiled in a controversy of such a personal nature," said Eric Smallwood, vice president of product management for Front Row. "It's best for the brand to have a limited brand affiliation with the athlete until the outcome is known.”
Rick French, a spokesman for Wrangler, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Favre, who has declined to comment on the matter, remains in rotation on the Wrangler Web site. The quarterback is expected to meet with the league's security chief Milt Ahlerich either today or tomorrow in Minneapolis, according to ESPN.com, to discuss his alleged conduct and to explore if it violated the league's wide-ranging personal conduct policy.
If no immediate disciplinary action is taken, Favre will make his league record 291st start on Sunday against his former team, the Packers, in Green Bay, this Sunday.
Questions? Comments? SportsBiz@cnbc.com
