Looking at the Pepsi, Lil Wayne Split

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Corporations are continuously trying to push the envelope when it comes to marketing campaigns.

This is especially true when companies pursue celebrity endorsements. Still, I was shocked the first time that I heard Lil Wayne on a radio advertisement for Mountain Dew. For starters, the award-winning rapper always seems to attract controversy. And the endorsement deal came just a few years after he served time in jail for a weapons-related offense.

So it didn’t surprise me earlier this month when Pepsi dropped Lil Wayne after one of his raps included offensive lyrics about Emmett Till. Pepsi attributed the split to “creative differences.”

In reality, Pepsi overlooked a key factor in signed celebrity endorsements: reputational risk.

Potential risk is an area highlighted in an article by the World Intellectual Property Organization. “The positive attention generated by affiliating a celebrity with a campaign may turn sour if the celebrity becomes involved in a scandal,” the report notes.

WIPO has some solid recommendations. First, companies should diversify by having multiple people endorse a product. Pepsi has certainly followed this mantra over the years. Another option would involve using “spokescharacters.”

It isn't fair to single out Lil Wayne; he is just an example of a troubling habit that Pepsi, and others, can't seem to shake. Many highly coveted celebrity endorsers have a fair share of scandal. Nowadays, notoriety is almost a direct function of controversy.

Pepsi has a history of making bad decisions when it comes to celebrity endorsements. Remember Madonna, circa 1989?

The Lil Wayne scandal could also have negative implications for rapper endorsements at a time when Corporate America had just started to warm up to the genre as a way to market beyond the traditional urban market. The strategy can still work, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see Pepsi (and other companies) play a waiting game before pushing the envelope like this again.