"Crest believes breast-cancer awareness is a critically
important program to support women in their health, and, as
planned, is making a $100,000 donation to the American Cancer
Society," a P&G spokesman said in an email statement. The brand
also "will participate in media and retailer activities to help
drive attention to the cause."
But the brand "has decided to cancel on-field activation with
NFL teams," he said, because of the ongoing controversy.
P&G earlier this week issued a call on the NFL to take
"swift action" to address the issue of domestic violence after an
image from CoverGirl's NFL web page was altered to show the model
in Baltimore Ravens-colored cosmetics sporting a black eye.
The NFL controversy began earlier this year when former
Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was suspended for only two
games after a video surfaced showing him dragging his unconscious
then-fiancee, now wife, from an elevator in Las Vegas.
The Ravens and the NFL parted ways with Mr. Rice last week after
a video surfaced of him hitting her in the elevator, and the NFL
has launched an independent investigation into Commissioner Roger
Goodell's handling of the incident. A drumbeat of domestic-violence
allegations and disciplinary actions against other players,
including star Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and
Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer has dominated
headlines this week.
P&G's corporate website and several brand websites with NFL
tie-ins were down on Monday as the doctored CoverGirl photo went
viral. But the company said the sites were undergoing maintenance,
and there was no sign that any NFL-related content was removed when
the sites went live again later that evening, including the
CoverGirl image that had gone viral.
Earlier this week, Radisson Hotels suspended its sponsorship of
the Vikings.
