LIVESTRONG is still very much alive as it strives to move out from under the enormous shadow cast by its founder, disgraced cycling champion Lance Armstrong.

A new brand refresh involving a new logo and addition of the word “Foundation” was revealed during the State of the Foundation address at the Livestrong Assembly last week in Chicago, expanding the “visual brand to show that the LIVESTRONG ethos—the belief in survivorship—is not abstract. Thousands of people and many critical programs are the “Foundation” beneath that ethos.”

“After its founder Lance Armstrong was publicly revealed to be a cheater, a liar, and a complete and utter d**khead,” comments Mediabistro, “it was hard to believe the LIVESTRONG foundation would survive the fall-out. After all the charity, which aims to provide free cancer support services for those battling the disease, had its brand so tied to Armstrong’s own story that when Armstrong lost all credibility, it seemed like he would take LIVESTRONG down with him.”

The disgraced cyclist had his seven Tour de France victories wiped from the record books, may be stripped of the Legion d'Honneur and faces being deposed in several pending cases which altogether leave him liable for more than $100 million.Continue reading...

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The Lance Armstrong saga is turning into a miniseries.

The OWN Network announced Tuesday that Oprah Winfrey's interview with the tarnished cyclist, taped on Monday in Austin, Tex., will air over two nights — Thursday and Friday — instead of one.

Winfrey calls her "no-holds barred" interview the biggest of her career "in terms of its exposure." 

During the interview, Armstrong is said to confess to Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France. Both he and Winfrey have not spoken publicly about the specific details revealed, but Winfrey told "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday: "By the time I left Austin and landed in Chicago, you all had already confirmed it."Continue reading...

Strange bedfellows, Lance Armstrong and Oprah Winfrey, but their "emotional" interview that was taped on Monday and will air on OWN and run on Oprah.com on Thursday, may be the million dollar ticket back for the struggling former queen of daytime as she returns to what she does best.

Oprah’s Midas touch for grabbing celebrities remains golden at her own cable network, including an exclusive with Whitney Houston’s daughter following the singer’s death, then the artful dodger, David Letterman, and now Armstrong, the iconic super-athlete dragged down by a doping scandal of unprecedented proportion that saw sponsors including Nike pull their support.

The Armstrong interview will set a record for the Discovery-backed OWN and for Oprah.com, also a vindication for Brand Oprah, whose OWN has struggled since launching two years ago.Continue reading...

The removal of Lance Armstrong’s name atop the winners list of seven straight Tours de France has also meant the removal of tens of millions of sponsorship dollars for the once-beloved cyclist.

One of those organizations that split from Armstrong has been sponsoring him since before he even was diagnosed with testicular cancer and even helped pay for some of his treatment: Oakley sunglasses. Well, Oakley apparently isn’t just disgusted with the whole sport of cycling, even though Armstrong clearly isn’t the only pro in recent years who has been nabbed for taking performance-enhancing drugs.

According to Bloomberg, after 12 months of negotiating, Oakley has signed on to be a sponsor of the Tour de France itself rather than any team or individual rider. That certainly seems like a safer way to go, though plenty of sponsors, such as Rabobank, have decided to leave the sport behind for now. The move comes as the Tour looks to rehabilitate its scandal-tarnished brand ahead of its centenary next year.

“I would like to see that the sport be what it once was,” Oakley CEO Colin Baden told Bloomberg. “It’s unfortunate what we’ve all experienced. It would be really nice to get back to the place where it’s admired, respected and understood.” It appears that getting to that point may take some time, but the Tour at least has one sponsor that will stick around and help the sport get through.

One thing Oakley also isn’t abandoning is Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation. “My wife’s a cancer survivor,” Baden told Bloomberg. “My belief and hope is that the foundation can continue its mission. Only time will tell, but it’s something we as a brand will still stand behind and we believe strongly that fighting cancer is a worthy cause.”

[Photo credit: Marc Pagani Photography / Shutterstock.com]

Plenty of folks are unhappy with Lance Armstrong, the once beloved American cyclist who has recently been stripped of his seven Tour de France victories due to damning evidence and eyewitness accounts that he took performance-enhancing drugs. The whole fiasco has cost Armstrong tens of millions in sponsorship dollars, with some donors even asking Armstrong's Livestrong foundation to return their money.

So what else can happen to the guy? Well, a few villagers in the UK took a 30-foot-tall effigy of Armstrong and burned it as part of the annual Guy Fawkes bonfire celebration, the Daily Mail reports. The effigy features Armstrong wearing a bike helmet and a yellow jersey and holding a sign that said, “Racing bike for sale no longer needed.”

UCI, the international governing body of cycling, is also feeling the heat. It's being sued by Swiss-based sportswear company Skins for $2 million, as it claims that the Armstrong doping scandal has hurt its brand. The company never sponsored Armstrong or UCI but has sponsored riders and cycling teams in the past few years.Continue reading...

The Tour de France is turning 100 next year, its organizers hope with a clean slate. It will be the first one to take place after the historic removal of Lance Armstrong’s seven straight wins from 1999 to 2005, even if it can't do much about its yellow (jersey) branding that recalls Armstrong's Livestrong yellow.

The Tour announced its route for next summer’s big race on Wednesday. Tour de France President Jean-Etienne Amaury said organizers will keep fighting the “plague” of doping, even as he didn't mention Armstrong by name.

One thing the Tour has got to be thankful for is that, unlike the many sponsors of Armstrong that have quickly ended their relationships with him, none of their sponsors have cut the cord just yet, the Associated Press reports.

"We don't sponsor a team or an individual, we sponsor a sporting event that each year attracts great public enthusiasm," stated French bank LCL spokesman Pierre Baillot, the AP reports. "The wider public knows how to draw a distinction."Continue reading...