Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a Carolina Panthers football game with my family. Of course, when you are watching football on TV, you expect to be bombarded with male-centric advertising at every possible moment. But I had forgotten that even at live sporting events advertising is constantly present, as if you were watching a televised broadcast.
Live events present an interesting situation for advertising–instead of airing commercials, companies “sponsor” portions of the game in exchange for their name being said over the intercom and logo being projected on the Jumbotron. There was not a single moment of this game that wasn’t bought and owned by some corporation, from the Crest “smile cam” to the cheerleaders’ time out routine being presented by Pepsi. This type of advertising is much more subliminal than television advertising, as they aren’t really making a case for their own product. However, they still function in a productive way, as–generally speaking–the products advertised are ones that everyone needs: toothpaste, home security systems, banks, etc. With the exception of banners advertising for online fantasy football sites, which I assume are geared largely towards men, the advertisements largely don’t discriminate between adults of different genders, races, and ages. It is interesting to consider how advertising at stadiums will evolve in the future, and I suspect that it will become only more present as time goes on.