In recent media, most people know who Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson are in a negative light, due to domestic abuse. For about a month, the NFL took a lot of fire for how the league was going to respond to the situation. The NFL since then, has taken multiple actions to show that they have remedied the situation and to raise their reputation amongst their female fans. One such action, first was taken by the league front office; in which commissioner Roger Goodell hired 4 advisors all of which are female to handle situations in regards to players and domestic abuse. This was quickly made public to show that the NFL was currently working on a policy .
The next action they took, was through extending the duration of their breast cancer awareness month. Every year, the NFL generally sets aside 2 or 3 weeks to honor breast cancer awareness month, and those women whom are survivors of breast cancer. This year, the NFL put aside a whole month towards breast cancer awareness in light of the the incidents regarding domestic abuse. During this time of the seasons players wear pink accessories to honor breast cancer awareness and this year the NFL teams went all out.
Certain NFL teams went all out in others ways, such as bars, clubs, merchandise stores and beauty clubs specifically for their female fans. On October 5 in Carolina was the debut of their style lounge for their female fans and they were open to using the service. Other teams that have such lounges located in their stadiums are the New England Patriots, Washington Redskins, Baltimore Ravens and Atlanta Falcons. By making this action, this showed that the NFL was really looking to tailor to their female fan’s for forgiveness of their players actions.
One way I saw the NFL contribute to this marketing scheme this past weekend was the commercial “NFL Player’s Say No More“. What the commercial is ultimately saying is to take action against domestic abuse, and if someone says something help them remedy it or point them in a direction to remedying it. Having the players as the main subject tells the public that they understand public incidents are unacceptable and that with the prestige of playing a professional sport comes your life being under the public eye.
As a result of all of these marketing schemes the results show that it has paid off. According to a random poll two-thirds of female fans and three-fourths of male fans were not affected by the incidents surrounding the NFL. However, most fans are not confident in their behavioral change policy.
Do you think the actions the NFL has taken has redeemed their reputation amongst female fans? What is your opinion on the actions of the NFL? Would there be anything different that you would do?
Sources:
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/10/13/In-Depth/NFL-marketing.aspx
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/09/22/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/NFL.aspx