SPORTS FANS: We Must Make Them Stop

[Aristotle]

I am talking about the insane over-commerical-endorsement-izing of everything related to sports.

Here is the latest absurdity:

The tangled web of sports and advertising

As part of a marketing alliance between Major League Baseball Properties, Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios, webbed logos of the upcoming film "Spider-Man 2" will appear on bases and on-deck circles in 15 stadiums of teams playing host to interleague games June 11-13.

Spider Man logos on the actual freaking BASES?!?!?!?!?!

Advertising on the silks of jockeys at the Kentucky Derby, and now this?

"This is not a step toward wallpapering the ballpark," says Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball's president and chief operating officer.

Well then what the hell is it?

That's exactly what it is dumbass.

"The fans are already becoming used to corporate logos being a part of their sporting events," said Jeff Chown, managing director of The Marketing Arm, an entertainment and sports marketing consultancy firm. "The purists will say that something like this is not good for the game, but something like this also helps promote the game."

Give me a fucking break. The major pro sports don't need any more promotion. Everyone who gives a damn already knows about them and knows how to watch them. This tired ass argument died about 20 years ago.

The only things that affect viewership are the level of cheeze and sleaze (which turns people away) and the random super star that people like so much they tune in. Everything else is just greed.

I'm seriously fed up with pro sports.

[Etruscan]

I read that article and it pisses me off, as I am getting pretty tired of seeing advertising for Pepsi or other products every where I look.

One of my favorite sports is boxing, though I am slowly getting less and less able to watch it due to the over-advertising going on. First it started off that the ring flooring had a Budwiser logo, then the corners had some type of emblem, the ring girl cards were next...Now they actually write on the boxers back advertisements for web sites. Also they have just begun the whole 'inconspicous product placement' type of ad campaign. For example have each of the ring announcers with a 'Pepsi' in front of them.

Working in the golf industry also has made me privee to some interesting advertising angles they are trying to utilize. I have overheard discussions of actually placing product logos (kinda like the 1st down line in football) on the aerial shots of the holes. So when you have a fly over of Augusta National you would no longer see the plush green of the fairway, but a gawdy Miller logo made to fit over it perfectly over it.

Makes me sick.

-Et

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by Etruscan
Working in the golf industry also has made me privee to some interesting advertising angles they are trying to utilize. I have overheard discussions of actually placing product logos (kinda like the 1st down line in football) on the aerial shots of the holes. So when you have a fly over of Augusta National you would no longer see the plush green of the fairway, but a gawdy Miller logo made to fit over it perfectly over it.

Ugh. I am shocked but not surprised. They networks pop gigantic boners over the ability to superimpose images for advertising purposes.

The only thing (imho) that makes golf even remotely watchable as a spectator is the fact that the environments are so beautiful. If you spoil that with ads, you've just destroyed a tremendously important part of watching the sport in the first place.

[Aristotle]

Well, the fans won one. I'm surprised. Now I actually wonder if they made this absurd suggestion with the full intention of giving in just to look good.

Baseball scales back movie promotion

Spider-Man will not appear on the base paths after all.

One day after hearing the public and media outcry following the announcement of the alliance between the league and Columbia Pictures in conjunction with the summer release of "Spider-Man 2," Major League Baseball officials and Columbia Pictures executives decided to scale back the promotion.

"It isn't worth, frankly, having a debate about," commissioner Bud Selig told The Associated Press in Oakland before the Yankees-Athletics game.

"I'm a traditionalist," he said. "The problem in sports marketing, particularly in baseball, is you're always walking a very sensitive line. Nobody loves tradition and history as much as I do."

[Gadiantor]

The boxing issue came upon the sports channel recently, so I thought I'd give this thread a bump.

I love to watch boxing, but refuse to watch any pay-per-view events. Friday Night Fights is about all I'll watch, and I've yet to see anything over the top there. It is sad that there are fewer and fewer ways to enjoy sports without having some advertising taking over. I mean just look at the naming of stadiums now...it's way out of control.

[Aristotle]

Did you hear the part about boxers renting out the space on their backs? They write the name of the sponsor in magic marker.

Etruscan was telling me that in one case, a boxer had to pay back some of the money to the sponsor because he won the fight too quickly.

That's tantamount to point shaving, imho.

[Gadiantor]

I've heard about that, but never seen it. I'm hoping that ESPN is above airing that sort of crap. I missed Friday Night Fights this week, but I'm going to be watching for any such abuses in the future!