Forums >Off the Beaten Path>Lance Armstrong appears finally to have run out of rope.
A person really concerned about moral or ethical business decisions would be hard pressed to find any athletic shoes to buy...or for that matter tons of other products made in certain parts of the world.
Feeling the growl again
the examples you provide are all good and appropriate examples of an 'anger' response to a service / merchandise provider. I can understand those responses. I (personally) think that the LA / Nike issue is different. For me, Nike may currently endorse 5000 athletes (give or take 4,000), and there's 1 athlete (in particular) that has changed your consumer behavior. Fascinating / interesting. Similar, but different... I have a colleague who's daughter finished high school this past year, and chose to go to Penn State. The mother (colleague) and her daughter loves football, but does not equate Penn State as evil, although I'm sure many people around believe that going to Penn State for academics should be equated to sending your teenage son to live with Jerry Sandusky for the next 4 years. Yes, overall, I recognize that people buy products because of those that endorse the products. Brian
the examples you provide are all good and appropriate examples of an 'anger' response to a service / merchandise provider. I can understand those responses.
I (personally) think that the LA / Nike issue is different. For me, Nike may currently endorse 5000 athletes (give or take 4,000), and there's 1 athlete (in particular) that has changed your consumer behavior. Fascinating / interesting.
Similar, but different... I have a colleague who's daughter finished high school this past year, and chose to go to Penn State. The mother (colleague) and her daughter loves football, but does not equate Penn State as evil, although I'm sure many people around believe that going to Penn State for academics should be equated to sending your teenage son to live with Jerry Sandusky for the next 4 years.
Yes, overall, I recognize that people buy products because of those that endorse the products.
Brian
LA is not just 1 athlete of 1,000-5,000 or whatever they endorse. He is/was absolutely the biggest, involved in arguably the biggest doping scandal ever.
If you can understand the Chik-Fil-A backlash based on the personal expression of belief of a single employee, this should not seem unusual to you at all.
As for Penn State....I have yet to meet a single person who believes there is something wrong with going to Penn State to earn a degree because a small number of football coaches and executives -- none of whom work there anymore -- made bad decisions. Certainly there is no popular sentiment of this that I have discerned. So that's pretty much a non-existent example.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
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You have a valid point.
However, I don't feel people are hypocritical for taking action on some offenses and not on others; to do so would require being omniscent as to the totality of all action/decisions/business practices of every company/product they touch.
One fact that irks me is even if I am willing to "buy American" for better quality and worker's rights etc, with many products/categories this is now actually impossible; those industries are extinct in the western world. I could give examples of products where I would gladly pay double or even triple for a high-quality non-Chinese version but it cannot be found.
agreed.
(This was in the news the week she moved to Penn)
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/14/us/penn-state-accreditation/index.html
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#1: Do what I can do
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(This was in the news the week she moved to Penn) http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/14/us/penn-state-accreditation/index.html
Thanks, I did hear about that and had forgotten.
IMHO it was a political move to put pressure on them to institute certain reforms (a proverbial stick) and nothing more. Of course, I could be wrong.
When this thread had started, my stance was to stay away. At that time, I felt that there were way too many unclear issues to nail an individual and label him. Same with a corporation or an organization. But I'm surprised no one had brought this up yet (unless I've missed it--I hadn't read the entire thread thoroughly): http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/nike-left-footprint-lance-scandal-article-1.1184431 Again, I don't think we have enough "hard" evidence to say one way or the other but I DO know it's a lot deeper--a whole lot deeper--than what we actually see. It took us more than a decade to finally start scratching the surface. My biggest concern then is; if they could pull what they did in a cycling circuit, how wide-spread this kind of thing is in a running circuit? Yet we still continue to chase and make a big deal out of some minor athletes like Hesch...
Prince of Fatness
Yeah but in this case not going to Penn State would more of a business decision and not a moral decision. They are already losing football recruits because of the sanctions there. Similar thing.
I live fairly close to Penn Sate and hear about this case quite a bit. I have not heard much if at all about students not wanting to attend the school for moral reasons.
Not at it at all.
Thought-provoking, to be sure. Thanks Nobby.
There was the recent incident of a banned coach in the Nike VIP booth at a track meet, which they explained away by saying anyone can just walk into their VIP booth. I'll have to remember that if ever I'm at one of those meets and want a better view with free snacks.
My biggest concern then is; if they could pull what they did in a cycling circuit, how wide-spread this kind of thing is in a running circuit?
Not just running.. but all athletics. MLB / NFL / NBA has "drug testing" where they pretend to actually care if the players use.
And we run because we like itThrough the broad bright land
Without saying. Justin Gatlin tried to join NFL (I don't know how far he went with it) WHILE he was suspended from T&F competition; and Marion Jones did join WNBA. I'm not saying they should not seek alternative career. But, especially in Gatlin's case, IF NFL allowed Gatlin to join NFL, what sort of message would that send? T&F banned him for drug cheat; but we don't care and would take him... Those major sports (unlike running!) possess even a bigger problem which most people don't realize. SI came up with an article about high school football players using drugs years ago. And now not only in sport but with all these incidences, sadly we, as an adult, are setting an example to the next generations: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/education/seeking-academic-edge-teenagers-abuse-stimulants.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
not bad for mile 25
I don't get angry at corporations, I just adjust my behavior based on my view of their citizenship in the world community.
I do feel angry and betrayed by Lance. I thought it was great when he won all those TDFs, I fell for the Livestrong hype, was excited to be riding RAGBRAI with him*, only to find that he was the kingpin of the mob that led to the ruination of world competitive cycling. Angry is the right word.
*along with 10000 other drunken yahoos
Stepping down to avoid negative impact on Livestrong? But staying on the board of directors
I am not making a statement of if it is a worth while charity ~ But Lance will always be the face of Livestrong and his story the reason people had flocked to support it ~ There is nothing he can do at this point that will not negatively impact it.
There are a lot of great charities out there.
I do not hate - Its like he was never born - never existed -
I don't get angry at corporations, I just adjust my behavior based on my view of their citizenship in the world community. I do feel angry and betrayed by Lance. I thought it was great when he won all those TDFs, I fell for the Livestrong hype, was excited to be riding RAGBRAI with him*, only to find that he was the kingpin of the mob that led to the ruination of world competitive cycling. Angry is the right word. *along with 10000 other drunken yahoos
Long dead ... But my stench lingers !
Hawt and sexy
So just back in from the day at hand. I am now seeing that it's pretty much all over the news that the Team USA Olympic sponsor had a hand in this and maybe many more messes? WTF can be done about that? If you make a national team, you have to wear this brand at certain competitions. Good lord we have a mess.
I'm touching your pants.
Nike, RadioShack, Anheuser-Busch, Giro, Trek end relationships with Armstrong
I think the shit storm has just begun.
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
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