Whether Alcohol Companies Would Sponsor Sports - Coursework Example

Assignment 1 Cover Sheet STUDENT NAME Huan Liu STUDENT NUMBER S235342 POSTAL ADDRESS 11 nightcliff road, nightcliff, DARWIN POSTCODE 0810 PHONE 0414863362 EMAIL liuhuan0109@163.com UNIT NAME UNIT CODE BUS302 Semester ___2___ Year ____3_______ LECTURER NAME Whether alcohol companies would sponsor sports ASSESSMENT TITLE DUE DATE D.07.../M10..../Y2012.. DATE OF SUBMISSION D.07.../M10.../Y2012. APPLIED FOR EXTENSION?  YES  NO  N/A KEEP A COPY If you have submitted assessment work electronically please make sure you have a backup copy. PLAGIARISM Plagiarism is the presentation of the work of another without acknowledgement. Students may use a limited amount of information and ideas expressed by others but this use must be identified by appropriate referencing. CONSEQUENCES OF PLAGIARISM Plagiarism is misconduct as defined under the Student Conduct By-Laws. The penalties associated with plagiarism are designed to impose sanctions on offenders that reflect the seriousness of the University’s commitment to academic integrity. I declare that all material in this assessment is my own work except where there is a clear acknowledgement and reference to the work of others. I have read the University’s Academic and Scientific Misconduct Policy and understand its implications.* http://www.cdu.edu.au/governance/documents/3.3academicandscientificmisconduct.doc Signed: ________________________________________________ Date: ___________________________ *By submitting this assignment and cover sheet electronically, in whatever form you are deemed to have made the declaration set out above. Office use only Assessor use only DATE RECEIVED PLEASE PLACE GRADE HERE DATE SENT TO LECTURER Student’s comments _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Lecturer’s / Tutor’s comments _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Whether alcohol companies would sponsor sports When a topic on alcohol consumption and young people come across, the most raised concern is how alcohol and sports are closely associated (Sivyer, 1990). In the modern world, sports are being more and more commercialized and sponsorships have taken over local and international sports. Sports sponsorship has become a significant marketing tool for advertisers due to flexibility, high level of exposure of the corporate or the brand, and broad reach, that it sports achieve. Thus, sponsorships are useful supplements to regular advertising. However, they are preferred as substitutes for advertising in situations where advertising may be banned or need to be controlled. Due to popularity, any sporting event that needs to be presented in the media creates an opportunity for the sponsors to market their products. Alcohol sponsorship is becoming prominent and these companies take a great advantage of exposing themselves in media through opportunities in sports. Alcohol sponsors sponsor sports events as well as advertising themselves in stadiums and arenas in order to have a good market for their products. Thus, through sports, they grab multiple chances for showing their brands to the large number of supporters of football through televisions and in arenas to those physically attending sporting events (Mason, 2005). Sponsorship of alcohol in sports is associated with many countries throughout the world. U.S is among them where advertisements on sports spend more than $540 dollars in TV sports programs (Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, 2003). New Zealand is another country that has a very strong relationship between alcohol and sports. Different sports are supported by alcohol at different levels and more directly gamming society is being funded by alcohol sponsors. The estimates of alcohol sponsorship in sports are more than $165 million dollars per annum. In addition, more than 9% of income in clubs is received from the sponsorship of alcohol (SPARC 2002). But, there a rising interest in the way alcohol sponsors in sports is gaining popularity. In turn, various organizations and government are more concerned with the impact of the sponsorship to the community and as a result, many countries are in the move of controlling the alcohol sponsors of sports. This is not is not supported by the alcohol industry because it is they may lose a significant way of introducing their product to people (WHO, 2004). Fiona Ryan, the chief executive of Alcohol Action Ireland, which is a member of the strategy's steering group said that sports sponsorship was "very lucrative" for the alcohol industry and it provides them with access to the young male market. She said that alcohol was as much a threat to people's health as tobacco and that one thirteenth of the country's health budget was being spent on alcohol related illness (BBC, 2007). Such news has a significant influence to the alcohol firms and it attracts the interest of the public. A lot of people believe that alcohol negatively influences people as well as the society. Therefore, they don’t support the alcohol sponsorship on sports. However, there are others who think that alcohol sometimes bring benefits to individuals and the society, even though it have some negative influence. But the reason behind the divided opinions in this issue is because people do not deal with the issues of alcohol in the right way. So, these alcohol firms that sponsor sports end up getting the support from the people. The issue of whether alcohol sponsors should support sports will be discussed in this paper. The main public issue in relation to alcohol and sports is human safety. In most countries more and more people find interesting and fun while drinking in sports. Thus, alcohol make people fell overexcited, especially during sport events. Australia has been described as “a model case where alcohol and sport have a close partnership”, in other words, alcohol and sports are symbols of Australian culture (Munro, 2000, p 199). For example, a recent survey of Queensland-based surf lifesaving, rugby union, and Australian Rules football club patrons found that 40% usually drink five or more alcoholic drinks on each visit, 22% drank seven all more, and 5% 13 or more(Connolly, 2006); which is significantly more than the recommended maximum of four standard drinks. There are two issues in regard to alcohol and sports that are related to the safety of human. The first which is also the main problem that is related human safety is driving. Drinking and driving is a common problem throughout the world. People tend to drink a lot in sporting event and then try to drive themselves home. This culture of drinking has developed because people feel that there is more fun in drinking while enjoying a game. Although they have more fun in doing so, driving when puts them and other drivers on the road at risk. Results show that there are 2,000 hospital beds a night for alcohol related cases. In addition one in every 11 kids experience parental drinking and one in seven kids are in care due to parental drinking (BBC, 2007). The second issue caused as a result of consumption of alcohol is violence. People tend to get more violent and tend to acquire bad boy syndrome after they have had a few drinks. In addition, alcohol has function that makes people feeling numb. While people who cannot feel pain, it will be easier for them to be violent. Drunken people feel like they are unbeatable and this leads to clashing with fans. Thus, there is a high chance of a fight breaking when people are drunk in a sporting event. In countries where the alcohol sponsorship in sports is very common, the safety of human is usually threatened. For instance, studies were done to examine sponsorship and fundraising in the schools in New Zealand. These studies showed that there are various groups involved for promoting health during these sponsorships where sporting itself is a sign of promotion of good health by keeping fit. But the sponsors have a high potential of promoting activities and products that threaten the health and safety of human. Such products include alcohol and gambling among others (Richards, Darling, & Reader, 2005). On the other hand, the alcohol firms that sponsor sports will be entitled to benefits such as increased profits. When these companies support sports, it will be easier for people to accept alcohol. For instance, during the World, fans prefer to watch games in clubs while taking beer. Later people whose side wins also drink beer as a sign of celebration. Thus, it is likely that the acceptance to alcohol is very high while people are enjoying various sport events. But in many sports event, there are many accidents that occur where most of them are associated with drunkenness. Therefore, due to such accidents, many people believe that alcohol sponsors should not sponsor sports. However, other people have different views in regard to accidents caused by drunkenness. They argue that even if the alcohol sponsors will not sponsor sporting events, people will still drink still drink after the match. In addition, if people engage in drinking after match, they may not cause accidents since they can opt for a taxi rather than driving themselves home. Or in other circumstances, they may be driven home by friends or family when drunk. Nevertheless, a lot of people still believe that alcohol companies should sponsor sports. This is because people if people control themselves, alcohol cannot threaten any human’s safety. If people known how to protect themselves from alcohol, alcohol will not be an issue. Hence, the most important thing is not to protect alcohol firms from sponsoring sports, but to make people to learn how to control themselves. According to Corti et al (1995), the alcohol sponsors of sports can also support the health and safety of human in their promotions by associating their products with healthy as well a positive images. This will be important for alcohol sponsors in sport because although their products may cause risks in health, they also present positive images to educate people on living healthy. In addition, sport is already a healthy activity and by associating with it, the sponsors overcome the issues of health by encouraging sports while at the same time promoting consumption. For instance, in New Zealand, alcohol companies support a lot of sports while on the other hand, gaming machine trust are organizations that are legally required to distribute funds to support all popular sports. They also have the responsibility of sporting tournaments such as “Scott-wood trust netball champs” as a sign of showing positive images in sports. Alcohol industry sponsors of sports not only have a significant effect on human safety, but also on economy, and it is the positive influence for government. Sporting events always attract large numbers of young audience who are the heaviest consumers of alcoholic beverages regard it as a good way to relax while and after watching sport events. In addition, sport is an active game, it is easy to make young people exciting, and also find a place to celebrate it is a good way to have fun. Alcohol industry sponsorship of college sports has become a common feature in universities. This is evidence in the scoreboard in many major college or professional sports events. College football is usually associated with heavy drinking, beer brand sponsorship of athletic department activities and televised broadcasts. In 2001, of the $811 million spent on television alcoholic beverage advertising, $491 million was spent on sports programs and had the largest youth ad viewing audience of any type of programming with alcohol advertising (Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, 2002). Many sporting events are very famous worldwide, such as the Super Bowl, Olympics and World Cup competitions. It is easy for alcohol industry sponsors to sponsor major national and international sports as they will be assured of brand familiarity throughout the world. Budweiser’s backing of the world’s most popular sporting event, the World Cup, is a prime example how Anheuser-Busch uses sports sponsorships to connect with adult consumers from a wide demographic background. Anheuser-Busch brand sponsors the Ladies Professional Golf Association, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the Professional Golfers’ Association and the Women’s National Basketball Association. On the other hand, Budweiser and Bud Light broadened their appeal to contemporary adults by stepping up music sponsorships in 2002 which includes “One Night Stand” concerts in small venues where attendance is open only to those who get tickets through Budweiser.”“Recognizing the potential to reach consumers in their homes, Anheuser-Busch was the first brewer to sponsor a national television show.” (Source: Anheuser-Busch Annual Report 2002, p. 10) It is clear that alcohol firms supply huge funds to support sports. No other industry can be compared with alcohol industry. However, most governments and organizations are focusing on stopping alcohol industry from sponsoring sport. A lot of people think that government should allow alcohol firms to market their products through sponsorship. This is because alcohol firms also need space to develop. However, the final beneficiary of alcohol sponsorship is government. According to Mongan (2010), alcohol industry in Ireland provides significant revenues to the government as well as creation of jobs both directly and indirectly. If government does not allow alcohol companies to sponsor sports, it will limit the development in alcohol industry, and finally, alcohol industry will lose money. It is also will affect government through reduction of revenues. On the other side, if government limited alcohol firms’ sponsor sports, it is also affecting NIRSA. By losing the support of alcohol industry, NIRSA will have to find other sponsors due to lack of enough fund to support running the games. Nevertheless, there is no other industry that may be willing to put so much money on sporting events. Therefore, it will be hard for NIRSA to find sponsors. In general, alcohol industry is at the best position of sponsoring sporting events. Other people argue that alcohol may result in traffic accident and incidents of violence. But they do not to consider that, even if alcohol firms do not sponsor sporting events, people will still be drinking. Thus, traffic accidents and incident of violence may also continue occurring. The most important thing is for the people to learn to control themselves. In addition, presence of regulations will ensure that the aim of the sponsors as well as that of the public is not jeopardized. In addition, the government is one of the main beneficiaries of alcohol sponsorship in sport and by stopping sponsorship, the government will lose revenues. Not only government but also NIRSA will lose their profits. As a result, I think it is better that government do not limit alcohol companies to sponsor sporting events. References BBC (2007). Republic could ban drinks sponsorship of sports events. BBC News Northern Ireland. 7th February 2012. Review from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-16919705 Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (2002). Television: Alcohol’s Vast Adland. Georgetown University, Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, Washington, DC. Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (2003). Alcohol advertising on sports television 2001 to 2003, Review from: http://camy.org/factsheets/index.php?FactsheetID=20 Connolly, S., (2006). Old: Survey finds binge drinking prevails at sporting clubs, AAP General News Wire, May 16. Corti, B., Holman, C. D. J., Donovan, R. J., Frizzell, S. K., Carroll, A. M. (1995). Using sponsorship to create healthy environments for sport, racing and arts venues in Western Australia. Health Promot Int, 10, 185-97. Mason, K. (2005). How corporate sponsorship impacts consumer behaviour. Journal of American Academy of Business, 7, 32-5. Mongan, D. (2010). Sponsorship of sports events by the alcohol industry, Drugnet Ireland, Issue 35, Autumn 2010, p. 12. Munro, G. (2000). Challenging the culture of sport and alcohol. International Journal of Drug Policy, 11, 199-202. Richards, R., Darling, H., Reader, A. (2005). Sponsorship and fund-raising in New Zealand schools: implications for health. Australia New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 29, 331-6 Scary G. (2007). Alcohol at Professional Sporting Events. Is it Right to Serve Alcohol at a Sporting Event? May 10, 2007, Review from http://voices.yahoo.com/alcohol-professional-sporting-events-334114.html?cat=4 Sivyer, G.W. (1990). Alcohol advertising and sport: a role for preventive medicine, Medical Journal of Australia, 153(4), 230-231. SPARC (2002). Running Sport, Wellington: Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC), 1-30. World Health Organization (2004). Global status report on alcohol, Geneva: World Health Organization; 1-94. Read More