advertising Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

This might have been the worst year ever for Super Bowl commercials
The dirty little secret about Super Bowl ads is viewers can watch them before the Big Game, with companies (presumably) wanting to stretch the impact of their most expensive spots of the year. Why anyone would seek out commercials before they’re forced to watch them, I have no idea, but, uh, yeah, i...

Ads for the NFL are showing up on white nationalist Twitter accounts
The NFL likes to think of itself as apolitical, but as most fans know, that’s only sort of true. Check out which political campaigns NFL owners donate to or the military-industrial complex fever dream that still kicks off multiple games every Sunday. ...

Sports leagues are ‘stepping up’ to ‘save’ you from sports betting ads
The burgeoning sports gambling industry in America took a blow Wednesday after professional leagues across the country combined forces to form the Coalition for Responsible Sports Betting Advertising, a group designed to “regulate” the boom in bookie ads currently flooding the internet and corruptin...

Which companies wasted their money on terrible Super Bowl ads?
We all know that companies advertising during the Super Bowl don’t expect to recoup their outlay in sales. It’s mostly about cementing your name at the top of the top, keeping your brand top of mind for any possible consumer. Still, the idea of spending $6 million for 30 seconds, one would think you...

The best and most memorable Super Bowl ads of all time
Every year, people tune into the Super Bowl to watch the two best teams in the league give everything they have to win the game and hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Companies, on the other hand, fight each other for those elusive and expensive moments of airtime to promote their brand. Everyone in the wor...

Decoldest Crawford’s first NIL commercial is wonderful
I know these days there are many people who start watching games a half hour late so they can fast forward past all the commercials, or spend their football Sundays watching seven hours of commercial-free football with Scott Hanson....

Super Bowl Ads Roundup: More cameo than commercial
It feels like tweens put more effort into their TikToks than ad agencies put man hours into Super Bowl ads. Feature a celebrity endorsement — or six — into a commercial and we’re good, right? Don Draper called Peggy Olsen lazy for pitching a Joe Namath cameo in the ’60s, and here we are, 60 years la...

Let’s be real here, now that NHL has sold division naming rights, there’s no going back
In a shrewd display of the importance of the almighty dollar, the NHL has sold the naming rights for one year of its four divisions. ...

If New Rules Weaken NCAA Control Over Athletes, That’s A Good Thing
In this time of big companies grabbing up small-business loans — or fucking over their employees to the point of death, news of the NCAA lurching toward the right thing, if belatedly and clumsily, is still something of a shock. It’s what happens when the bar is so low. “The NCAA: The butter is under...

Report: MLB Considering Adding Dopey Advertising Patches To Uniforms
According to the Sports Business Journal, we are one step closer to living in a world in which every possible moment spent watching a sporting event will also be a moment spent absorbing corporate advertising. That’s because MLB is reportedly considering following the NBA’s lead and adding advertisi...

Naturally Integrate Me Into A Hole, Please
Because you’re normal, you probably did not read a Q&A with Ringer CEO Bill Simmons that was published yesterday. Bear with me for a moment, though, and take a look at the final question and answer, concerning The Ringer’s ad partnerships:...

Source: ESPN.com Altered A Headline And Buried Stories To Placate Advertisers
ESPN.com altered the published headline of one story and deleted Twitter and Facebook posts about it, and halted the promotion of another story, all under pressure from advertising partners, according to an ESPN source and internal emails viewed by Deadspin....

What The Hell Is The Hopewell Fund?
The NFL PR playbook is so obvious at this point that it’s shocking the league’s executives are still impressed by the idea: When people get upset, throw money at the problem. ...

NBC Airs A Bizarre NFL Promo Featuring Lawrence Taylor
In 2010, former Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor was charged with third-degree rape, patronizing a prostitute, sexual abuse, and endangering a child, after he had sex with a 16-year-old who’d been delivered to him against her will by a pimp, who’d punched her in the face in order to secure her comp...

What Are You Doing, Under Armour.
It can’t be this hard to be a damn apparel company, right?...

How Many Nuggets Does Your Soul Cost?
If you’ve been on the internet this month, you’ve definitely been exposed to the most successful ad in the history of Twitter. Millions of people and countless media outlets have propagated the heartwarming story of a giant corporation buying a priceless amount of advertising for close to free. If ...

Fox Sports Hires ESPN's Former Ad Agency In Bold Attempt To Distinguish Itself From ESPN<em></em>
Say what you will about Fox Sports, they’re consistent. Over the last several years they’ve done everything possible to establish themselves as the off-brand ESPN, from bringing in trash enthusiast/flim-flam man Jamie Horowitz to run the show to putting failed dipshits ranging from Colin Cowherd to ...

Peyton Manning's Hairline Is A Lie
Eagle-eyed reader Jim writes in that an ad campaign on ESPN.com features multiple Peyton Manning hairlines scattered amongst inane takes by Stephen A. Smith and fantasy football promotions. The former NFL QB is shilling for some brand you’ve never heard of, and when we checked for ourselves we found...

Why Is The NFL Giving More Super Bowl Ad Time To Its Favorite Sham Domestic-Violence Group?
I took the No More pledge last year. What do I have to show for it? I’m now very aware of when #NOMOREexcuses Law & Order: Special Victims Unit marathons are about to air, but that’s about it. I don’t know much more about domestic violence or sexual assault. I haven’t discovered new organizations wo...

Pro-Domino's Pizza Tweets From Adam Schefter & Chris Mortensen Were—You Guessed It—Ads
Remember that pair of strange recent tweets from Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen suggesting that the two ESPN NFL insiders would be staying in on New Year’s Eve to watch the college football playoff and eat Domino’s Pizza? They were, indeed, part of an ad campaign....