Advertising: Sports

See also Olympics; Super Bowl; NASCARProduct Placement; Celebrity Ads

This site contains a collection of images from news sources; to be used as a starting point for discussion by students on the issue of how companies buy visibility at major sports events, many of which are broadcast and seen by millions of viewers, many of which are photographed and carried in newspapers around the world.

Teachers: Be sure to see the list of links (articles) below which will provide you and your students with sufficient background about this topic.

Students should first locate, identify, list all of the “brand names” they see within each photograph.

Here are some questions for students to ponder:

-how much is an athlete or sports celebrity paid to wear clothes with a sponsor’s logo or brand name?
-how much is a stadium/arena paid to display advertisements?
-how many people are exposed to a media message when the image is broadcast on TV; in the newspaper?
-who benefits from these messages?
-can sporting events exist without advertiser support and message placement?
-how has placement of tobacco or alcohol messages, during US sporting events, changed over time?
-how many US stadiums/arenas have corporate names attached to them?
partial list   –naming rights/cost list          
Arenas Overview
(Commercial Alert)   Sport naming rights (Nov. 2005)

MLB, union agree on marketing deal
Ads Make Play In Cowboys’ Quest For New Stadium
Adage Article: Inside the Stadium Naming Rights Business     Adage List (pdf)

Lesson Plan: Sports Personalities Advertising In Magazines


Winston Cup Flags Come Down as NASCAR
signs Nextel as Exclusive Sponsor (2/12/04)
For Nascar Fans, Nextel Is Calling
Digitally Inserted Ads Pop Up More In Sports


what people in the ballpark see: a blue screen


what people at home see:
an advertisement

Mark Knowles from Bahamas, right, and his doubles partner Daniel Nestor from Canada play their match against Argentine pair of Gaston Etlis and Martin Rodriguez at the Australian Open Tennis Tournament in Melbourne, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2003. (AP Photo/Rick Stevens)


Lebron James: Product endorsements
Sprite/Bubblicious/Nike


Even “virtual ads” show up, in this case, during a
televised soccer match.

from The State (SC) Sunday March 16; graphic shows approx. costs of product placement on Winston Cup cars

Related Readings

“boystoMEN, Sports Media – Messages About Masculinity”
by the Children & the Media Program at Children Now
http://www.childrennow.org/media/boystomen/boystomen-sports.pdf

Gender Stereotyping in Televised Media Sport Coverage.
Nathalie Koivula   From Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, October 01 1999 by Nathalie Koivula
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2294/1999_Oct/59426460/print.jhtml

He’s a Laker; She’s a “Looker”: The consequences of Gender-Stereotypical portrayals of male and female athletes by the print media. Jennifer L. Knight  From Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, August 01 2001 by Jennifer L. Knight, Traci A. Giuliano
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2294/2001_August/82782447/print.jhtml

Tobacco use among high school athletes and nonathletes: Results of the 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.(Statistical Data Included)  From Adolescence, December 22 2001 by Merrill J. Melnick, Kathleen E. Miller, Donald F. Sabo, Michael P. Farrell, Grace M. Barnes
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2248/144_36/84722696/print.jhtml