Stephanie Rice loses Jaguar endorsement over ‘faggots’ tweet
It didn’t even take 140 characters for swimmer Stephanie Rice to lose her lucrative Jaguar endorsement – 20 did the trick.
Her late night Twitter commentary – “Suck on that faggots” following the Wallabies victory over South Africa – created unwelcome PR coverage for sponsors Jaguar, Davenport, SunRice and Seven.
And this morning, Jaguar said that it had ended its relationship with the Olympic gold winning swimmer.
Jaguar Australia’s marketing and public affairs manager Mark Eedle was quoted today as saying: “We made a decision yesterday, and we’ve terminated the agreement with her. We will be taking the car that she’s been using back.”
At the time of posting, Jaguar had not responded to Mumbrella’s request for comment.
Yesterday Rice issued a statement on her website saying: “I made a comment on Twitter on Saturday night in the excitement of the moment. I did not mean to cause offence and I apologise.”
This morning Rice’s website still says this about Jaguar: “Jaguar and Stephanie have a lot in common…”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Hi Tim
Link is broken
Cheers
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how cool would it be if they gave the Jag to Mattew Mitcham instead
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Hi Thomas,
(If you mean the link to the video), we’re finding it’s working sporadically at this end… might be worth trying a couple of times…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Jaguar probably didn’t see as much value in Stephanie this year now she’s not competing at the Commonwealth games.
Was probably just a pretty good reason/excuse to terminate a contract as I’m sure there was a clause re: behaviour, or disrepute etc.
Rice was nothing more than a pretty little face for Jag and the penetration and recognition with the brand wasn’t that great.
Davenport and Ch7 have both invested a lot more in Rice to cut her loose just yet.
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Spot on Anon333 – perfect opportunity for Jag to cut and run.
Any headlines about Rice being fried or boiled?
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I didn’t even know she was sponsored by Jag. Which either means she wasn’t doing a very good job or I’m not rich enough to buy one..
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Well she was right about the springboks anyway
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Since when did gays have sole ownership of the word faggot?
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Well I guess the dumb-jock myth is proven once again. This (edited by Mumbrella) should learn to just swim and keep her dumb, bigoted mouth shut. I guess when you start failing at your sport you need to do something to keep your name in the news. I’m sure this is only the start of this intolerant dimwit’s foot-in-mouth moments. Any sponsor that would even think of hiring this idiot is dumber than she is.
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@ Tim – I’m surprised you allow the comments fcrom “Jan” – quite pointless
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Justice is served. I don ‘t care how excited she was, childish comments like that don’t improve relationships between people. Australian sports men / women need to learn to win graciously – this is not the first time Aussie sports personalities have intimidated people at the end of a victory – they are becoming famous for it.
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I think jan’s comment made perfect sense. We need to stop elevating sporting “heroes” with all this adulation (including sponsorships) because, at the end of the day they almost all fail when they open their mouths. If steffie dedicated herself more to the one thing she’s good at (allegedly swimming) and stopped partying and opening her mouth the world would be a better place and she wouldn’t find herself in another sticky situation with her foolish use of social networking media… did she not learn her lesson last time?
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Hi Jan
Well I guess the dumb-Jan myth is proven once again. This (edited by Mumbrella) should learn to just look at websites and keep her dumb, bigoted mouth shut. I guess when you start failing at your career you need to do something to keep your name in the news. I’m sure this is only the start of this intolerant dimwit’s foot-in-mouth moments. Any business that would even think of hiring this idiot is dumber than she is.
x
Eek
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I would have thought that making a stupid comment made her a perfect fit with the Jag image.
Maybe they did too……………….
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I totally agree with that Donovans comment, Australias so called ‘famous people’ of today are becoming more famous for the wrong thing than the right. Why is she saying sorry to the gays and not to the southafricans. I mean it was addressed to us.
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Pity she isnt South African, because she would have more respect and manners for other people and herself.
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who cares.Amountain out of a molehill.
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Koala….try calling any rugby player some derogatory name to his face and you will very quickly find out who is the mountain and who becomes the molehill. Australia deserved to win – it was a great game – but sport does not need intimidating words / actions. Yes. its war on the field but after that we need good sportsmanship on all sides. Theres also been a couple of Saffers in the past that could also have done with some PR training. . And yes, I am a Saffer but I have had great Aussie friends who would not be happy about what this lady said.
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Donovan, by “some PR training”, do you mean “not beating cops to death with their bare hands”?
BTW, I agree that she should have apologised to South Africa/ns. What she said was way more racist than it was homophobic.
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1) Forced unskippable ads are the number 1 turnoff for looking at videos. See Failblog for further examples
2) Forced unskippable ads which stop and buffer are even worse.
3) Criticizing celebs and journos for what they tweet is the number one way for them to stop tweeting and the public will lose this excellent form of access.
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Hi Inq,
Your point being that it’s not comment-worthy when a celeb calls people faggots?
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I think its pretty nasty to use the term “faggot” . Everyone knows its a pejorative term for gays and its not right.
Subsitute the word “nigger” and see if 7 and Sunrice would stick by her.
Good for Jaguar.
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Unfortunately, the Association of Surfing Professionals also allows their professional athletes to use “gay” in a derogatory way – broadcast around the world so millions of children can see it. This was the second offense after I had already contacted their International Media manager, Dave Prodan, about a similar piece that had run earlier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK3kex9U8r0
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I was called Faggot first and if anyone should be insulted, it’s me.
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That is the most legendary tweet evarr. Funny af.
So I’m guessing a bunch of click [edited under Mumbrella’s comments policy] got upset about this? Taste their furious rebukes! Then Stephanie lost her Jag. Vengeance was theirs.
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