NFL Teams With Procter & Gamble In a Play for New Kinds of Sponsors†

Wall Street Journal, August 5, 2009 — The National Football League has an official drink and an official wireless headset. Now, in a sign of how far sports leagues will go to find revenue in the recession, it has official toiletries.

The NFL, the biggest U.S. sports league by revenue, on Wednesday will announce a sponsorship deal with Procter & Gamble Co., maker of everyday household items such as soaps and shampoos. The multi-year pact, which P&G says is the costliest in its history, lets it slap a newly designed "Official Locker Room Product of the NFL" label on products including Old Spice deodorant and Head & Shoulders dandruff shampoo.

Mending a Bruised Image

New York Times, August 30, 2007 — In one spot, a father sits on the sofa with his young children, reading to them from a large book while a daughter nestles her head on his neck.

In another, a man talks on the telephone to his mother — telling her “I love you” — then tells the camera that she encouraged him to play football as a child to keep him out of trouble.

In a third, a man describes his goal of going to law school and talks about how hard he worked as a student at Notre Dame.

The latest Hallmark campaign? No, the National Football League.

Concerned by growing uneasiness among fans and marketers about athletes gone wild, the league is embarking on an effort to burnish its brand image by accentuating the positive aspects of the on- and off-field lives of its... continue reading

National Football Intrigue

Hub, January 6, 2007 — Despite its success- or maybe because of it - the NFL is rarely thought of as innovative. Lisa Baird, the NFL's senior VP of consumer products and marketing, readily admits that the league is not exactly a bastion of new ides, but just as readily asserts that she is out to change that.