After Ray Rice, the NFL Needs to Go Big to Restore Brand With Women

It may be 'toast' if it doesn't, marketers say

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If the National Football League addresses the Ray Rice scandal as merely a public relations problem, most branding experts and marketing execs say it's making a colossal mistake. In fact, Christopher Lehmann, ecd and general manager for Landor Associates' Chicago office, said the league "is toast" if it adopts a weak crisis strategy.

"Any truly great brand will take an event like this—or, more exactly, a topic of serious social concern like domestic violence—and know that it must confront the issue and act like a leader," he said.

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