Had to chuckle last week at the flap over the proposal to display advertisements for the Spiderman movie sequel during a major league baseball game. The idea was to put movie logos and the title at a number of strategic locations, including the bases themselves, in Yankee Stadium. This, in an effort to get the movie images in front of fans in the stadium and on TV.
Problem was, no one involved in arranging this media manipulation checked with anybody else. There apparently was no market research to test public reaction. In fact, no one even checked with the Yankees to see if they were willing to put the Spiderman bags on the basepaths.
As a result, there was an outcry of opposition to the plan from fans, writers and the Yankees themselves. The ad campaign was withdrawn the day after it was announced.
That comes on the heels of a smaller controversy over the use of ads on the silks of jockeys riding in the Kentucky Derby. That eventually did go through and nobody was hurt.
In fact, sorry to say, advertisers, I can't even recall seeing the advertising on the silks.
It is possible, though, that this thing could get out of hand.
Imagine, ads displayed on the necks and forelegs of the horses. Not too many advertisers, I don't suppose, would pay to have their company images on the other end of the horse.
Maybe little, or even big, signs fastened between the animals' ears, or written on their noses.
Not too different, though from, say, bicycle racing. You can't see a picture of Lance Armstrong in the Tours de France without seeing the U.S. Postal Service logo on his uniform, even when he wears the leader's Yellow Jersey.
The need, of course, is for money. Competing at the top levels of pro sports, even big league amateur sports, is expensive and getting more so. As a result, participants need sources of income other than prize money.
Advertisers, at the same time, need to attract more buyers by getting the names of their companies in front of the public. So you have to put the name where people look ... and they look at other people playing sports.
I remember back in the mid-60's, when Formula One racing was interesting. At that time, companies did support teams, but no advertising was allowed on the cars themselves. As fans we knew which companies supported which teams, but no logos or company names were displayed.
Finally, it got so expensive, and companies were spending so much money, they just couldn't justify the dollars, francs, lira they were spending unless their names were being shown.
The powers-that-be in F1 finally relented and allowed advertising. A certain innocence was lost when that happened.
In NASCAR, of course, ads from Shorty's Garage to Viagra have always been a part of the scene.
Last week, during some of these discussions, I heard a quote from Sam Wanamaker, founder of Wanamaker's Department Store in Philadelphia. He was said to have once said, "Half the money you spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, though, you never know which half."