Drinking the Pepsi Kool-Aid
I’m not a big fan of naming rights for sports stadiums. From a branding perspective, the name of the venue ought to be about the team, or at least the community. It ought not be about which corporation ponied up the most money so that its brand can intrude on the tribe.
But, capitalism being what it is, I expect naming rights are here to stay.
And as much as the subject irks me from a branding perspective, it’s an even more interesting question among journalists. As Pepsi enjoys endless repetitions of its brand name by the national media during the Democratic National Convention, Al Tomkins at Poynter Online asks whether this constitutes an unacceptable blend of marketing message and journalistic content.