Nearly seven years after a dog-fighting operation was found on Mike Vick’s property in rural Virginia, Vick continues to be a polarizing figure. And one company may have come up with a novel way to capitalize on it.
Via PhillyMag.com, an online auction company known as Quibids hired Vick to do some endorsing. And then the relationship ended as soon as the endorsing began.
On Monday, Vick posted on Twitter and Facebook an endorsement of the service. On Tuesday, Quibids took to Facebook to explain that Vick would be doing no further endorsing.
“We would like to sincerely apologize for the endorsements posted on Michael Vick’s Facebook and Twitter accounts yesterday,” Quibids said.
“As most employees here at QuiBids are dog owners, we want you to know we would never, ever condone animal abuse, and we’re sorry that our recent actions did not reflect our values.
“Please know that we’ve had Michael delete his post and have stopped all future campaigns with him. Additionally, we’ll be making a contribution to the ASPCA to help the fight against animal cruelty.
“We very much care about you and what you think and will take measures to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
A cynic would say that Quibids knew what it was doing before it did it, hiring Vick and then publicly firing him in a way that would draw far more attention than simply hiring him in the first place. If that’s the case, Quibids is sufficiently calculating to be willing to be perceived as complete buffoons.
Meanwhile, I need to go see what this Quibids thing is all about.