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I'm on the fence. On the one hand this is for charity and a good cause. On the other hand if one company does it how quickly will the NFL became so flooded with endorsements it will appear like NASCAR? Then again, how much play do companies like Nike, UnderArmer, Riddle, etc. get from just having their names all over everything??
What do you think?
When Eagles tight end Brent Celek scored a touchdown on Sunday night, he celebrated his touchdown by putting his hands on his hips and raising his right leg off the ground. You may not have thought anything of it at the time, but now you'll understand why you spent the rest of the night craving a glass of spiced rum.
Celek's celebration was actually a pretty nifty bit of guerilla marketing by Captain Morgan, which offered to donate money to charity anytime a NFL player celebrated a score by striking the pose made familiar in commercials and on liqour bottles. The NFL didn't find it quite so nifty, however, and reached out to the charity and the company to tell them to put the kibosh on the stunt.
While Celek originally denied the promotional angle, but an exec with the company confirmed the deal. The company was planning to donate $10,000 to Gridiron Greats, which helps retired players deal with hardships, every time a player struck the pose on camera during a regular season game. The money would rise to $25,000 and $100,000 in the playoffs and the Super Bowl.
Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports spoke with NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, who, unsurprisingly, said that the league isn't into companies using their games as a platform unless the NFL gets a cut of the action. They said they will punish any players who go forward with the celebration, presumably in the form of fines equal to the amount donated to the charity.
"A company can't pay a player to somehow promote it's product on the field. Every league has the same rule. ... It's come up before, companies trying to use our games and then players for ambush marketing purposes."
While no one was going to be hurt by a few players striking a particular pose, it's hard to argue with a league's right to profit from its own marketability. That said, no players are getting paid for this, as all the money is going to charity, so while they're right about the Captain using guerilla marketing techniques, there appears to be a loophole. But no player is going to explore that loophole at the risk of infuriating a coach and losing money, so the NFL isn't likely to see a challenge.
Plenty of companies already pay players to promote their products on the field, however. Nike is paying Adrian Peterson to promote its products every time he touches the ball, it's just in a less blatant fashion than Celek promoting Captain Morgan.
The damndest part of the whole thing? Gridiron Greats might not even get the 10K from Celek's act. The campaign hadn't officially launched yet, which means that the Captain got all the publicity without any obligation to give money to the charity. Well played, NFL. Hopefully they'll still do it, because it would be a shame if the only two winners from this were the league and a corporation.
Celek's celebration was actually a pretty nifty bit of guerilla marketing by Captain Morgan, which offered to donate money to charity anytime a NFL player celebrated a score by striking the pose made familiar in commercials and on liqour bottles. The NFL didn't find it quite so nifty, however, and reached out to the charity and the company to tell them to put the kibosh on the stunt.
While Celek originally denied the promotional angle, but an exec with the company confirmed the deal. The company was planning to donate $10,000 to Gridiron Greats, which helps retired players deal with hardships, every time a player struck the pose on camera during a regular season game. The money would rise to $25,000 and $100,000 in the playoffs and the Super Bowl.
Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports spoke with NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, who, unsurprisingly, said that the league isn't into companies using their games as a platform unless the NFL gets a cut of the action. They said they will punish any players who go forward with the celebration, presumably in the form of fines equal to the amount donated to the charity.
"A company can't pay a player to somehow promote it's product on the field. Every league has the same rule. ... It's come up before, companies trying to use our games and then players for ambush marketing purposes."
While no one was going to be hurt by a few players striking a particular pose, it's hard to argue with a league's right to profit from its own marketability. That said, no players are getting paid for this, as all the money is going to charity, so while they're right about the Captain using guerilla marketing techniques, there appears to be a loophole. But no player is going to explore that loophole at the risk of infuriating a coach and losing money, so the NFL isn't likely to see a challenge.
Plenty of companies already pay players to promote their products on the field, however. Nike is paying Adrian Peterson to promote its products every time he touches the ball, it's just in a less blatant fashion than Celek promoting Captain Morgan.
The damndest part of the whole thing? Gridiron Greats might not even get the 10K from Celek's act. The campaign hadn't officially launched yet, which means that the Captain got all the publicity without any obligation to give money to the charity. Well played, NFL. Hopefully they'll still do it, because it would be a shame if the only two winners from this were the league and a corporation.
What do you think?
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