Super Rugby players skipped KFC ads after invoking SBW clause
Some of the country's high-profile rugby players opted to avoid featuring in KFC television advertisements, exercising the same clause in their contracts Sonny Bill Williams did by taping over a bank logo on his jersey.
In his debut for the Blues, against the Highlanders in Dunedin on Saturday, Williams taped over the BNZ logo on the collar of his jersey. Williams has not explained why other than to say it was owing to a conscientious objection.
The objection was believed to have been due to his Muslim faith, which goes against the notion of banks charging interest and fees on loans.
New Zealand Rugby Players Association chief executive Rob Nichol said all players were able to lodge conscientious objections, but they were not a given and usually had to be agreed to by the employer - which is New Zealand Rugby.
The Blues were understood to have been blind-sided by the taping move, and Williams, his management and the sponsors in question were expected to release a statement clarifying the situation on Tuesday.
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A prime one was the reluctance of players to appear in the ads of Super Rugby sponsor KFC, believing it wasn't such a good look for a fast food chain to be linking with the sport.
"There are some players who essentially said 'No, that's not for me'," Nichol said.
"A number of players said 'Look, I've got no issue with KFC sponsoring rugby, but just given my situation, I don't really want to be associated with their advertising'. So we've had players being excused from doing KFC adverts. What we do on behalf of all the players, and KFC were outstanding in this respect, is we said 'Listen, when you're developing your adverts, it'd be really sensible, we believe, to make sure that when you're looking at the role the players have, don't put them next to the product - so don't have them holding or consuming the product, just do the brand association stuff.
"And as soon as we did that, a lot of players said 'Oh yeah, I'm more than happy to be involved now'."
Nichol confirmed there had been other cases too.
"There's been a few others, but obviously we're not going to go into the individuals, or their details."
Nichol said a "conscientious objection" was a request only and required agreement with the employer - New Zealand Rugby.
"If they don't grant the consent, then the player won't be excused and they will be required to undertake the certain activity, and if they don't that would be a breach of their contract," he said.
In the SBW case, it would be a combined effort between NZR and his Super Rugby club, the Blues.
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