Canadian
speed skater Cindy Klassen is poised to return home
from the Turin Olympics in Italy with five medals, including
one gold. Yet her victories aren't likely to be limited
to her sport's icy oval racetrack... Several marketing
industry experts said Klassen — whose only current corporate
agreement is with McDonald's — may stand to garner new
deals worth at least $200,000 apiece in the wake of
the Turin Olympics.
To
be sure, making an athlete a corporate pitchman has
sometimes backfired, said Bob Stellick, a Toronto sports
marketer whose clients include Bell Canada and Home
Depot Canada among others. For instance, after sports
drink maker Gatorade signed Vancouver Canucks forward
Todd Bertuzzi to a contract and filmed several TV commercials,
the company was forced to scuttle the ad campaign when
Bertuzzi attacked another NHL player, Colorado's Steve
Moore, during a game.
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