Andy Warhol once observed that people like to believe time changes things – whereas in reality we have to make changes ourselves. It's short-sighted to wait for the passage of years to do the heavy lifting for us.
Overturning the status quo can be a slow process, especially if powerful vested interest groups oppose it. I'm thinking of alcohol's tie-in with sport here. While tobacco sponsorship is now regarded as harmful, alcohol sponsorship remains tolerated – partly because lobbyists employed by drinks companies are effective at persuading politicians.
To date, the alcohol giants have successfully resisted efforts to dislodge their product names from pole position at sporting fixtures. Such events offer influential stages, and companies are unwilling to relinquish them without a fight. Sponsorship, by the way, is soft advertising – nothing else.
Looked at objectively, it is strange that the hook-up between alcohol and sport should be so tight, because elite athletes tend to avoid intoxicating drinks altogether, or else consume them sparingly. But cash is a powerful inducement towards forming connections.
The Heineken Cup is one such ill-matched marriage. However, it is rare to encounter figures from the world of rugby questioning these sponsorship arrangements: they regard it as biting the hand that feeds them. Former rugby player Denis Hickie has recently stepped outside the herd, though – and the word 'former' is relevant in this context. Recently, he spoke before a cross-party Oireachtas committee in Leinster House to press for a drinks industry sponsorship ban in sport. Currently, such an injunction is being considered from 2020 onwards by a working group chaired by the Taoiseach's department. No doubt, drinks lobbyists are in overdrive – as is their right. Hickie is also campaigning on a particular platform, after all.
Alcohol representatives adopt a clever approach, highlighting the sector's value to the economy: the tax take, for example. They insist they make a cultural contribution to society through tourism and festival sponsorship. Certainly, the arts would struggle without their sponsorship.
More insidiously, drinks advocates question whether banning sports sponsorship would lead to any improvement in public health. Who takes up drinking, they shrug, because of some lettering on a player's jersey?
But sporting events are sponsored because they generate business. Big business. Sponsorship is about one goal and one goal only: selling. It helps to build brand awareness, get a product's name on people's lips and boost market share. All of which leads to sales.
Source: Martina Devlin, Irish Independent, 26/06/14
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