ESPN: When Your Brand Representatives Become a Liability

Photo Credit Deirdre Reid

Early this morning I was poking around Facebook like many millions of people do each day, when I saw a post by my friend Deirdre Reid aka @deirdrereid.

She commented on how @MrMichael_Smith of @ESPN had posted tweets on how funny he thought the accident of Dutch cyclist Johnny Hoogerland was on twitter.

Yep you heard right. Michael Smith thought it was funny . . . and apparently still does.

Photo Credit Deirdre Reid

If you do a simple twitter search for @MrMichael_Smith you will see a plethora of outraged people demanding that ESPN reprimand him for his unprofessional behavior online.

@TdFLanterne recently posted the response he received from ESPN regarding Michael Smith’s comments on twitter.

Each second that ticks by, and as word is spreading in the cycling community of Michael Smith’s insensitive tweets – he and his flippant responses on twitter are alienating people from the ESPN brand.

Photo Credit: Deirdre Reid

This is a text book example of when a brand representative can quickly become a liability thanks to the world wide reach of social media.

For those of you who may not have heard – Johnny Hoogerland was forced off the road at around 60mph into a barbed wire fence by a French TV camera car during Stage 9 of the Tour de France. You can read the full story here.

Photo Credit REUTERS

I don’t know about you Michael Smith, but I don’t find a single damn thing funny about this.

UPDATE : July 13 10:02am

Since yesterday #firemichaelsmith has gained strength as more and more cyclists across the world have learned of Michael Smith’s tweets.

Though Michael Smith did finally apologize on twitter, it seems that it’s too little to late after all of his very personal tweets defending his right to laugh at Johnny Hoogerland’s crash.

As one twitter user aptly said -

@_steventran: I take @mrmichael_smith‘s comments seriously because they publicly perpetuate a disregard for the lives of cyclists. #firemrmichaelsmith

additional reading :

This post by @simonmacmichael of @roadcc highlights the number of cyclists killed in Brittan alone.

CTC says rate of deaths among cyclists not falling quickly enough as DfT releases casualty stats

Stats from the U.S.

bicyclinginfo.org: Bicycle Crash Facts

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Do you think Michael Smith should be reprimanded for his lack of sensitivity and remarks on twitter by ESPN?

If you were an ESPN exec. how how would you handle a situation like this?