When does sponsorship get too out of hand? Every time you look sponsors are trying to get there name out there. It’s either on a bill board, on T.V, on stadiums, on cars, any where u look you can see an athlete or team being sponsored by a company. Athletes everyday are getting crazy deals and companies just throw money away just to get there name out there. But in my eyes it is getting a bit ridiculous. For example this year Phil Rizzuto, the old New Yankees baseball player and announcer passed away. When the Yankees had there ceremony they had a huge master card symbol right on the podium. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-schorno/sports-sponsorship-when-_b_67608.html)
This was supposed to be a nice event to celebrate Rizzuto not a selling point. Another example is Lebron James. When Lebron came out of high school this is what he got; 90 million from Nike, 16 million from Coke, 5 million from Bubblicious, and 8 million dollars from Juice batteries. The kid never dribbled a ball in the NBA.
http://www.adrants.com/2004/02/lebron-james-adds-another-five-million-to.php
Here is another example of how crazy it is. BMW lost 200 million dollars just because Oracle, which is the American Sailing team didn’t make it to the
4 comments:
I think that you are exactly right in saying sponsership is getting out of control. To me it doesn't really do anything, but then again that may just be me. I have never seen a commercial with an athlete trying to promote something and thought to myself, "I'm going to go buy that because he has it", it just doesn't happen. Now don't get me wrong, sponserships help to pay for stadiums so that may be one good thing about it, but that one good thing does not erase all of nonsense it causes.
I agree that there are way to many sponsors but like you said they will do anything to sell their product. If putting their name on one more thing means selling more products they are guaranteed to do it. I do believe though they they actually do not realize that most of their advertisements are not being effective. When I see a sponsorship I really do not want to go out and buy it. Bottom line sponsorship should learn its boundaries like not sponsoring a death or a remembrance there is a line and companies should not cross it.
I agree with you to an extent. Yes there are those companies, like oracle, that throw millions of dollars out there and get nothing in return. On the other hand companies such as Nike, Pepsi, and Coke have had those millions of dollars of sponsorship money come back and turn into millions of dollars of revenue. So personally I think it is nuts to throw so much money on advertising/sponsorship, but the proof is there that it can help boost a companies business.
I agree with you, Brian. If companies cut back on all the money they put into advertising, they could consequently put even more money into product development in the future. I don’t know what Juice Batteries is, nor do I understand how they have 8 million dollars to invest in LeBron James, a high school kid who is fresh off his trip to senior week. The fact that the Phil Rizzuto ceremony was turned into a corporate affair by placing the MasterCard logo on the podium is the best example of how far things have gotten out of control. Corporate involvement needs to be cut back, at least in terms of spending. I understand companies want more money and advertising will do that, but someone needs to show them how to do it economically. More so, the advertising should be ensured to be effective in increasing product awareness. Good post, Brian.
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