Depending on your viewpoint, she either handled the situation with great aplomb by swatting off a journalist who asked a difficult, but important, question or it was car-crash viewing, accompanied by a memorable lesson in how not to micro-manage your PR.

Harrington has been a brand ambassador for Spar since 2021 and, together with fellow Olympian, Gary O’Donovan, has fronted several initiatives for the retailer over the past few years. The most recent one is the Spar Community Fund, a worthy initiative that will see the retailer give €60,000 to different community clubs and societies around the country. Harrington, who along with fellow boxer Katie Taylor, is highly sought after in the sponsorship world, is a key part of this initiative.

But she is by no means the first sports personality to navigate a media terrain while trying to dodge potential landmines and she certainly won’t be the last. But on a scale of one-to-utter moral outrage, well, this is where people appear to differ. While there is no shortage of people on and off social media this week willing to act as judge, jury and executioner, there is an equal amount of people cheering in her corner of the ring.

The recent history of sport and sponsorship is littered with the names of famous athletes who have gone off-script and in doing so have triggered all kinds of controversy. And not always for the right reasons either.

In 2019, the Australian rugby player Israel Folau, for example, invoked the ire of the nation when he tweeted that gay people would go to hell unless they repented. A devout member of the Pentecostal Christian church in Australia, Folau also compared gay people to drunks, adulterers, thieves and atheists. Under pressure from sponsors including Land Rover, Asics and Qantas, which is led by openly gay Dubliner Alan Joyce, Rugby Australia terminated Folau’s contract. He now plays his rugby in Japan.

And then of course there are the different transgressions of Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Maria Sharapova and Ryan Lochte – all of whom fell short of sponsor and fan expectations for widely varying reasons. What they all have in common, however, is that they are all human beings who have made mistakes, were sometimes vulnerable and at other times naïve or just plain stupid. That is part of the human condition unfortunately.

The Kellie Harrington controversy – which may have another round to go – also shines a light on the increasingly uneasy and difficult terrain sponsors must navigate in a world that has become increasingly polarised when it comes to a wide range of societal and geopolitical issues.

Should our sporting heroes and celebrities be allowed to have their own personal opinions, however misguided they may seem and even if some people don’t agree with them? As the recent Gary Lineker debacle at the BBC shows, it’s not entirely black and white.

Whether it likes it or not, the sponsorship industry will be forced to contend with these issues more and more in the future. Finding the right balance between taking a stand and remaining neutral, however, is a challenge the industry will need to navigate very carefully. And the answers will not always be under the tree at Spar.

Media awards countdown

Over 280 entries were submitted to the Media Awards 2023 which take place on Thursday, April 27, in the RDS, Dublin.

The awards showcase the best commercial ideas, strategic and creative thinking in the Irish media and advertising industry. This year, an expert panel of over 70 Irish and international judges will pick the winners with the shortlist set to be published on Thursday, April 6. Tickets for the event have already gone on sale.

Summer love in needs advertising

With the summer edition of Love Island set to return to TV screens in June, Virgin Media Television is seeking €550,000 for the sponsorship of the reality TV show which is now in its 10th year.

According to VMTV, last summer’s series saw over 2.2 million viewers tuning in on Virgin Media Two while 15 million streams were reported on the broadcaster’s player platform. In addition, an average of over 246,000 people watched each episode across the series.

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