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Nick Drake
Prof Dagher
UWRT 1102
3 April 2015
EIP Exploratory Research Essay
Inquiry Question: Has advertising completely taken over the sports industry?
Having been brought up in the sport of racing, I have been aware of the influx of
advertising first hand. Ive seen how it has changed the sport over the years, specifically in
NASCAR. As a child I was un- aware of how big the idea of advertising was; I just saw the likes
of companies such as McDonalds and Good wrench on the hoods of racecars and thought
nothing of it. Now that Im nearing the age of twenty it has become tremendously apparent that
advertising and sponsorship is the primary drive of the sport. Whether it be with TV commercials
or advertising booths, as well as company logos everywhere you look around the racetracks, or
even seeing certain teams going out of business due to the lack of sponsorship. I was never really
into any other sports; I watch football and basketball from time to time but I never really kept up
with either in entirety. I was curious to see if the influx of advertising has taken over the entire
sports industry as a whole.
With the technology advancements around the world I feel as if most of the population
has access to the viewing or participation in sporting events. Disregarding 3rd world countries its
evident that most families are tied to a favorite sports team in which is often a desire ritual for
them. Whether it be soccer worldwide, or the popular sports of baseball, football, and basketball
in America, the amount of people being targeted with advertisement could be countless.
Beginning my inquiry I started local, with ideas that I would have prior knowledge of before
broadening my research. Joshua Newman wrote A Detour Through NASCAR Nation and

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addressed certain ideas of how advertising is shaping the die hard NASCAR fans and well as
casual viewers. He took notice to the sport being driven by corporate logos and even went as far
as saying how some of the die-hard fans of the sport are becoming more and more concerned
with the company logos on the hood of the cars rather than the drivers themselves. (Newman, J.)
Some political controversies were even drawn up such as God and Guns involving the
cowardly phrases and pictures worn on peoples shirts, post 9/11, during pre-race prayers and the
national anthem. Regarding personal experience of teams going out of business due to lack of
sponsorship I came a gross a video dont by Target promotions. As teams go out of business due
of funding, drivers often are forced to put an end to their careers via the same reason. The video
is a very short documentary type clip about young NASCAR star Kyle Larson, discussing his
route to the top of the sport. As the role of advertising and sponsorship becomes more and more
prominent in auto racing, it is not seen as of late for a driver to successfully make it to the top
without any sort of family funding. Larsons father goes to on explain how the sport is so
financially driven and that their father figure of a large company to fund Kyles racing career was
not present. Larsons dad said he wasnt able to afford anything beyond the go kart level and that
his talent would have to take him the rest of the way. (YouTube. Target. 2015) Pertaining to my
inquiry question, this was one of the only cases in years that a kid with no financial backing was
able to successfully advance his way to the top of the sport. Kyle Larson now has the likes of
sponsorships and endorsements from companies such as Target, Energizer, and Chevrolet that
advertise upon his behalf.
For further inquiry I dug deeper to find out the effects and roles of advertising in other
areas of sports. I looked up the NBAs most popular, and arguably the best, player, LeBron
James. I came across an article on Forbes. They addressed him as the King both on and off the

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court. He is statistically the best active player as well as the king when it comes to moving and
growing his branded product. LeBron was signed by Nike after graduating high school to a 7
year- 90 million dollar deal for a shoe line in his name. Being the iconic figure he is in all of
sports his shoe line with Nike grossed over 340 million dollars in just the last 12 months. Having
complete control over the basketball shoe market with nearly double the sales numbers of his
runner up competitor. The article explains that Nike has nearly monopolized the basketball shoe
market by controlling 95.5% of it using LeBrons name. (Forbes. Forbes Magazine. web. 2015)
This type of power inevitably beats into viewers, competitors, and participants that if you want to
be the best, you have to wear the best.
After my findings of how an iconic player such as LeBron effects the apparel market, the
question of how an iconic sports figure moving or being traded to a different team and city can
effect that cities economy was brought forth. This directed me yet again to LeBron. An article
done by John Petkovic of Cleveland.com addressed LeBrons return to Cleveland after being
traded back to the Cavaliers. He is an event and an economy. (Petkovic, J. Cleveland.
2015)They address having LeBron to advertise and improve the morale of the team and its fans
greatly aids Clevelands economy. As LeBron is the most well-known basketball player, having
his face back in the city shows tremendous inclinations in people from the outside coming in.
Upon his departure it was said that a large 60 percent of fans to attend basketball games in
Cleveland were form that same county. (Petkovic, J.) Ultimately assisting local food businesses
as well as other attractions in the area. His effects on merchandise sales take over the population
of fans, whether they are local fans of Cleveland or outside fans of LeBron himself. As I see
how an iconic figure can effect a city as a whole with either branding their product or advertising
themselves I wanted to see how advertising could run the sports industry in other ways. The first

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thing I thought of was the Super Bowl. Being the most widely watched sports event in the United
States. One of the main elements of the event is the commercials that are aired during the event.
An article on ads week came caught my eye during research. In this article a survey of 500
people was constructed by lab42, a survey company in Chicago in 2015. The 500 people were
asked what their favorite part of super bowl Sunday was. The super bowl is the most largely
viewed sporting event in all of America. Of the 500 people surveyed the largest percentage of
them (39%) responded that the commercials were their favorite part. As compared to the 28%
that were actually more interested in the game itself. Other responses consisted of eating food
and spending time with friends and family. These numbers are up from surveys constructed in
2012 which showed 47% were not going to miss the game and only 37% were more interested in
the entertainment of the commercials. Companies are going to extremes as the price for a 30
second super bowl ad has grown to 3.8 million dollars. (AdWeek. Web. 2015) Advertising in this
nature is growing and is slowly taking over the viewers attention as opposed to actual product of
the game of NFL football.
After realizing the importance of commercials nowadays I was curious as to see how
iconic sports figures effected commercial advertising. An article conducted by Sara Abrams of
San Diego State University came up and the article introduced the "halo effect" in which I wasn't
particularly familiar with. It has been seen on actors, singers and other largely known public
figures in advertising. And now on athletes. They determine the "halo effect" as the belief that
when the general population sees an athlete with or using a certain product, they will be more
inclined to buy it in mimic of the sports figure. Gatorade for example utilizes 24 important
athletes including the likes of baseball player Derek Jeter, basketball player, Michael Jordan,
tennis player, Serena Williams, and NFL endorses upwards of 75 sports figures and

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Gillette, a mens grooming company is considered as one of the best when it comes to product
promotion via athletes. (Abrams, S. SDSU. Web. 2015) Halo effect advertising has inclined such
companies to the top of their market shares with the help of this product placement technique.
To conquer with the given sources Ive come to realize the takeover of advertising in the
entire sports industry. Advertising is now running different areas of many different sports
whether it be with merchandising, branding, or even economic and morale benefits for given
cities. The commercializing of iconic sports figures are evident and are inevitably going to
continue to grow with the proven effects it has on consumers. Ive been contemplating on the
actualization that advertising in sports is almost a game itself. Business are competing as a team
designing different plays, if you must, as advertising strategies to out-do their opponents. If I
were to continue research, I still ponder the question of how does advertising effect sports that
arent top tier. Id also look into advertising in minor league sports divisions and contemplate
whether or not the sports industry could ever do away with advertising. And if not, how long it
would last before they would completely burn out.

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Works Cited
>Newman, Joshua. A Detour Through 'NASCAR Nation' N.p.: Sage Publications, 2007. Print.<

>"Drive: Kyle Larson." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. <

>"LeBron James Is NBA's Top Shoe Salesman With $340 Million For Nike." Forbes. Forbes
Magazine, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.<

>Dealer, John Petkovic The Plain. "LeBron James' Return to Cleveland Cavaliers an Economic
and Psychological Boost for Downtown, City's Spirit." N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.<

>"Ads Trump Football in Super Bowl Survey." AdWeek. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.<

>"Athletes in Advertising." PRSSA San Diego State University RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar.
2015.<

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Peer Review

1. I exchanged papers with John and Kristin. Both had really good papers about gun control
and social welfare systems in the Dominican Republic. I gave common feedback such as
reading your paper out loud to yourself to assist with addressing spelling and grammar
errors. I did not point out them all. I gave feedback as far as using transitions between
paragraphs and the sources to provide a better flow for the paper. Also I reminded them to
use in text citations when necessary.
2. John and Kristin seemed to really like my paper. I got a lot of positive feedback. Likewise
John reminded to read over it and fix grammatical errors. Kristin noticed that one of my
paragraphs was really long. I broke that up by its sources to shorten it with out taking out
any information. John loved my conclusion and he pointed out that I followed the
exploratory structure from the book really well. Some of my sentence wording was
confusing and I chose to fix that. Kristin reminded me of using in text citations. The only
thing I didnt chose to include was Kristins idea of making my inquiry question in my
first paragraph as I didnt think it was necessary. The title of the inquiry question itself I
think improved organization and it was more direct.