So I’m at work today(Restaurant), getting some cherry tomatoes. I grab a container and look at it, “Official licensed NASCAR product.” It even has the NASCAR logo on the top. Cherry tomatoes? I look at the pallet they came on, it’s all checkered like a finish flag, and just to drive the point home, there’s a NASCAR, uh, car on the side. Cherry tomatoes? What kind of people would buy a particular brand of tomatoes to show their NASCAR pride?
Anybody else spot strange product endorsements?
Beer is a huge sponsor of NASCAR. But don’t drink and drive.
McDonald’s and the Olympics?
The Pepsi Center? (venue in Denver where the Avs play)
Tide and NASCAR?
The Staples Center? (LA)
I think it should be illegal for an advertiser to buy the right to use its name on venues/theme parks/sporting events. It’s just wrong.
[sub]Advertising whores![/sub]
When I lived in Columbus, OH, I saw the Ohio State University logo on just about anything imaginable. I distinctly remember OSU branded hotdogs.
Same in southern VA with Virginia Tech. They’re currently doing a bang-up job pushing their own brand of wine, which, taste-wise, is essentially Franzia poured from a box to a bottle with a Hokie Bird slapped on it. For $16.
On the flip side of the coin, the Official Bottled Water of Virginia Tech® is one of the cheapest I’ve seen. If ever I feel inclined to shell out cash for tap water, I’ll let you know how it is.
Eh?
The Universities in the US have officially branded products? Do you get extra credit for buying them?
No, you don’t get extra credit, but the university gets royalties, which, theoretically, go back into university priorities.
Robin
A couple of months ago I heard an announcement on public radio that went something like this:
“Hi. I’m Luke Perry. Do you know my zip code?” (pause)
“Can you name three of my school friends?” (pause)
“Can you name three of your child’s school friends?” (pause)
“Children are our most important investment in the future. Talk to your children today.”
Somewhere, someone was looking for a spokesperson for good parenting, and they thought . . . Luke Perry!
Or perhaps Tori Spelling was unavailable.
My dad’s an alum; I hope to god he never hears of this.
My personal favorite university tie-in is Univrsity of Wisconsin’s Bucky Badger cheese food spread. It comes in like four different flavors.
Do you have some information that Luke Perry is an unfit parent, that would disqualify him from being a spokesperson?
The sideburns. Those awful, awful sideburns.
Besides, isn’t he related to Krusty the Klown? Not very promising genetics.
You guys have an ag school, right? Maybe they were made in your Meat Lab.
Besides having starred in one of the worst television series of all time? 
I remember there was an article in The Sporting News about licensed NASCAR products and whether a person could live by only using licensed NASCAR products. One of the anecdotes in the article involved a grocery store, where NASCAR-licensed lemons were outselling regular lemons. The store was actually sold out of NASCAR lemons. One of the men at the store commented, “It’s that damn NASCAR logo” that makes them a success. I work at a grocery store as a cashier, and I think of this story every time I ring up a bag of SpongeBob carrots, which seem to sell better than non-branded carrots. (Nickelodeon has started to license their characters on vegetables in an effort to get kids to eat healthier.)