One has to wonder about some people. The advertising community had "common knowledge" (I have friends at ABC) that this guy was one stop from a trainwreck yet they thought, and probably bottom line so, that if they could just get as much out of the relationship/cache as possible before it hit the fan then well, ok...cause I/they would be on to another job before it happened.
I'm waiting for the next branding expert to pick up these pieces and restore the judgment to the image.