Hamilton's Trouser Inferno
by GrahamDavies

William the Conqueror. Alfred the Great. Ivan the Terrible (and his wife Blodwyn the Dreadfully Disappointed).....the concept of Personal Presentational Branding has been around a long time.

But in 2009, it is easier to build up an image quickly, especially a bad one....and it's the bad ones that are the most difficult to shake off.

Lewis Hamilton is just finding this out. I am not an afficionado of motor racing, so the reasons why the Team Director needed Lewis to mis-speak are not entirely clear to me. Lewis himself says that he did it because he was told to.

This is a defence that has not worked in the courts of Law or Public Opinion since Nuremberg in 1946. It does not sound like a good reason for him to set his pants on fire in the pit lane.

This is desperately sad. Hamilton has become a role model for people who strive to succeed despite disadvantaged backgrounds. But the sheer effort he has put into this has been severely devalued because of this latest episode.

He will have to work very hard over a long period of time to re-brand himself again as an Inspiring Champion instead of Lewis the Liar.