I haven't seen his interview with Oprah yet, and we are only in January of the new year, but I'm going to go ahead and call it, Lance Amrstrong wins this year's biggest PR idiot award.
If you haven't heard, turns out Lance WAS doping all along.
I've said this a thousand times and I'll say it a thousand more times... want your PR life to be easy? WORK WITH THE TRUTH!
Seriously, even if it costs you in the short run, working with the truth will be hugely beneficial in the long run. You can manage almost any situation as long as you don't lie.
Lance lied, lied, lied... took a breath then lied some more... took a nap then lied again. So after denying that he doped, what, a thousand times, he's now going to confess that he did dope.
The question (some) people are asking is can he save his brand?
The answer, with absolutely 100 per cent certainty, he can't.
Lance Armstrong will forever be remembered as a cheat, but even worse, a liar.
I don't care if he cries for 30 minutes during his interview with Oprah, this guy's goose is cooked. You simply cannot bold faced lie for years and then turn around and say 'Oh, ya about that, I was lying, sorry."
I'm sure Lance will say that the drugs didn't enhance his performance much and that everyone was doing it and that's just how it is in professional sports (you dope but deny it), blah blah blah.
None of that matters because you put yourself up there as an idol of healthy living, meanwhile engaging in unhealthy behaviours and lying through your teeth to everyone.
Not to mention all the lives he negatively impacted. What did he take from all those guys who came in second? Money obviously. Endorsements? Perhaps. How about all the hard work they put in only to come in second because the top guy was a cheat?
All around Armstrong is clearly a self-centered prick who cashed in by cheating and then lied forever about it (so that he could keep cashing in).
What should Lance have done?
So what should Lance have done in this situation?
The answer is simple, NOTHING. He should not have bothered confessing. He should have taken the 100M he's made over the years and retired. Maybe start up some business designing bikes or something.
Why he's doing this confessional thing makes no sense to me. His brand is destroyed from this and there is nothing to gain.
The only thing that even makes a lick of sense is that someone has him on tape confessing or doping or something and so he's being forced to out himself before such content is made public.
Either way, Lance's brand is shot to hell and this confession with Oprah was a horrible PR move. It's not going to win him back public support. Some confessionals do actually begin rebuilding a brand, because once you tell the truth you can re-establish trust, which is at the core of any brand. But in Lance's case, the lying was so prolific that there's no rebuilding that trust.
Now, if he gave back his 100M that he earned from being the best cyclist, that would re-establish trust. But let's be realistic, no matter how much he apologizes for lying he is not going to give back a single dime that he made from the proceeds of doping.
So instead of sailing off in to the sunset as the world's best cyclist (with people wondering if he ever doped), he instead is putting the nail in the coffin of his brand with this confession.
If you haven't heard, turns out Lance WAS doping all along.
I've said this a thousand times and I'll say it a thousand more times... want your PR life to be easy? WORK WITH THE TRUTH!
Seriously, even if it costs you in the short run, working with the truth will be hugely beneficial in the long run. You can manage almost any situation as long as you don't lie.
Lance lied, lied, lied... took a breath then lied some more... took a nap then lied again. So after denying that he doped, what, a thousand times, he's now going to confess that he did dope.
The question (some) people are asking is can he save his brand?
The answer, with absolutely 100 per cent certainty, he can't.
Lance Armstrong will forever be remembered as a cheat, but even worse, a liar.
I don't care if he cries for 30 minutes during his interview with Oprah, this guy's goose is cooked. You simply cannot bold faced lie for years and then turn around and say 'Oh, ya about that, I was lying, sorry."I'm sure Lance will say that the drugs didn't enhance his performance much and that everyone was doing it and that's just how it is in professional sports (you dope but deny it), blah blah blah.
None of that matters because you put yourself up there as an idol of healthy living, meanwhile engaging in unhealthy behaviours and lying through your teeth to everyone.
Not to mention all the lives he negatively impacted. What did he take from all those guys who came in second? Money obviously. Endorsements? Perhaps. How about all the hard work they put in only to come in second because the top guy was a cheat?
All around Armstrong is clearly a self-centered prick who cashed in by cheating and then lied forever about it (so that he could keep cashing in).
What should Lance have done?
So what should Lance have done in this situation?
The answer is simple, NOTHING. He should not have bothered confessing. He should have taken the 100M he's made over the years and retired. Maybe start up some business designing bikes or something.
Why he's doing this confessional thing makes no sense to me. His brand is destroyed from this and there is nothing to gain.
The only thing that even makes a lick of sense is that someone has him on tape confessing or doping or something and so he's being forced to out himself before such content is made public.
Either way, Lance's brand is shot to hell and this confession with Oprah was a horrible PR move. It's not going to win him back public support. Some confessionals do actually begin rebuilding a brand, because once you tell the truth you can re-establish trust, which is at the core of any brand. But in Lance's case, the lying was so prolific that there's no rebuilding that trust.
Now, if he gave back his 100M that he earned from being the best cyclist, that would re-establish trust. But let's be realistic, no matter how much he apologizes for lying he is not going to give back a single dime that he made from the proceeds of doping.
So instead of sailing off in to the sunset as the world's best cyclist (with people wondering if he ever doped), he instead is putting the nail in the coffin of his brand with this confession.
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