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Using names of corporate sponsors in stories

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Mr. X, May 2, 2009.

  1. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    If they were a well-polished organizer, they probably would, actually.
     
  2. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    Probably not. But if the company sponsoring the business wants to write about it in its own publication, it probably wouldn't get cut there either.
     
  3. GRUDGE

    GRUDGE Member


    Bingo!
     
  4. Never use a corporate sponsor's name unless it is the actual name of the event. If you're covering the Orange Bowl, it is not the FedEx Orange Bowl, it is just the Orange Bowl. If you're covering the Chick-fil-A Bowl, that's its name. That's what it has to be called. Never use the title sponsor in any other situation.
     
  5. H. Wayne Huizenga was one of the first to come up with this (crappy, but) genius idea. he came up with a bowl game at 'Joe Robbie Stadium' and called it the Blockbuster [video] Bowl. You couldn't call it anything else, not really. It was a new game, had no other name. It was simply, the Blockbuster Bowl.

    When H. Wayne decided the bowl sucked and he could do no more with hit, he sold the rights to it and washed his hands of it. Guess the new name? The Carquest Auto Parts Bowl. Could have called it the Anti-Orange Bowl, or the F-U College Football Bowl, but it only had one name.

    And it was a sponsor.

    If I covered the Chick-fil-A Bowl, I would still call it the Peach Bowl. That's what it's been for 30-whatever-years until the eat more chicken people took it over. But other things like this? You're stuck.

    The Allstate Sugar Bowl? Fuck you Allstate.

    And as far as the Rose Bowl goes, Citibank wasn't nice about this and weren't trying not to 'tramp' on the bowl's good name. The Rose Bowl is not letting it become the Citibank Rose Bowl any more than it would let AT&T become the main sponsor. It was the Rose Bowl presented by AT&T. Tough shit on them. You want your name on it? That's all you get.

    Good for the Rose Bowl. No one cares about Citibank or AT&T as a secondary sponsor.

    And it sure as shit ain't the Kentucky Derby brought to you by Yum! It's just the fucking Kentucky Derby.

    Yum! gets their logo out there on NBC and the t-shirts and all that. But that's it.
     
  6. thesnowman

    thesnowman Member

    In the name of being clear to the readers, how about another not-so-hypothetical ...

    -when you have 5 travelling teams from the same sport (different age groups) in your community using the same name (White Sox, Flames, whatever), and each team also has its own sponsor.

    Is it then in your best interest to list the sponsor on first reference so you're not garbling your ledes with something like "Podunk Hornets midget AAA baseball team" every time?
     
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