When corporate sponsorship goes to far

April 23, 2008 by Benjamin Kabak 15 Comments

Ed Price relates an odd story from Chicago: The White Sox have put up a sign exhorting players not to drink bottled water on the bench. Why? Because Gatorade, the official sports drink of Major League Baseball, won’t be happy if someone is spotted in the dugout drinking some other bottled drink. “White Sox clubhouse personnel said if players take bottled water onto the bench, all the bottled water will be removed from the clubhouse as punishment,” Price relates. That strikes me as utterly ridiculous.

Manimal

What about Big Papi, he’s sponsored by Vitamin water( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGYM6loXYos ) I love that commercial. The attack of the thirst quenchers.
pete c.

It is ridiculous. But not as ridiculous as night games in mid October. Brought to you by the networks. Does anyone out there remember Bowie Kuhn freezing his ass off in his shirt sleeves at the world series when MLB went to weeknight games instead of day games?
pete

*too far, not to far
Realist

Lol , don’t drink the water….es no bueno!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can put up a sign like that and hope that it will be adhered to but as a man once told me………..

” Hope in one hand and shit in the other, then tell me which one fills up faster?”

;-)
Alan

Gatorade – It’s got what athletes (or consumers, apparently) crave.

Obscure?
- http://www.riveraveblues.com Joseph P.
  
  Brawndo! Annihilate your thirst!
Mike R.

Alan – Great reference.

Water?? Like the stuff in the toilet??? Why would they want to drink that?
- Realist
  
  Very funny Mike Judge movie ;-)
  - Tripp
    
    Man, that movie is hilirarious…President Comacho—a former porn star.
    
    “Yeah, I got a solution, you’re a dick! South Carolina, what’s up”
    - blah
      
      Criminally underrated movie.
      
      Doctor: “You’re chart says you talk like a fag and your shit’s all retarded.”
      - Alan
        
        I have to say I am extremely pleased to see the number of people that picked up the reference.
Art Vandelay

This is actually not surprising. I swam at an ACC school, and at our ACC Champsionship meet, they gave us all Aquafina bottles and told us that if we wanted to drink gatorade, we should pour it into an aquafina bottle. The reasong, of course, was that Aquafina is an “official corporate partner” of the ACC. A fact which was also announced ad nauseum during the entire meet, I might add.

Now, this was a college swim meet that next to nobody cared about aside from other swimmers, much less a nationally televised professional baseball game.
ceciguante

that is sad, that drinking water is discouraged by a contract. they should have filtered water available anyway, instead of having it flown or trucked in.

besides, gatorade rots your teeth, from what i’ve read.
Dylan

Don’t they know that our bodies are 60% water? Maybe if we switch that to 60% gatorade, we will run faster and jump higher.
http://www.workwithpete.com Pete

>> besides, gatorade rots your teeth, from what i’ve read. >>

Right. If it was me, I’d be filling up old Gatorade “Ice” bottles with water…