While advocates against alcohol advertising in motorsports have been pressing for years for the elimination of such sponsorships, there are a few teams out there, in a multitude of motorsports, which carry the colors of both popular and distinguished brands. Take Formula 1, for instance, where high rollers and lavish lifestyles are omnipresent, and the sponsors pay a huge premium for the exposure. Continue Reading »

Some Notre Dame athletes really embraced their Irish side on Friday, July 16th when 11 of them were busted for underage drinking.

According to ESPN.com: The son of former Notre Dame standout Joe Montana was among 11 Fighting Irish athletes arrested on misdemeanor charges of underage drinking at a party Friday night.< !–more–>

A total of 44 people were arrested after city police responded to a call about a fight near a roadway and discovered the party, said St. Joseph County Police assistant chief Bill Redman.

Two non-athletes face a misdemeanor charge of providing alcohol to minors. The arrests were handled by state excise police, who didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment on Saturday.

Worst case scenario has the athletes spending 30 days in jail, but like that’s going to happen. They’ll be back to doing keg stands and slurping Jagermeister shots out of the finest cleavage South Bend has to offer.

Today, ten brewers from three Colorado breweries will embark on a five day, 470 mile bike ride for charity. Tour of BoulDurango starts at Avery Brewing Company in Boulder and crosses over 6 majestic mountain passes to Durango. During the epic journey, the ten crazy brewers from Avery Brewing, Oscar Blues Brewing and Ska Brewing will be visiting craft breweries and brewpubs along the way in an effort to bring together Colorado brewers, raise money for local charities, and encourage the spirit of collaboration and camaraderie.

“Craft beer isn’t about getting rich and cutthroat business practices; it’s about following your passions and doing what you love, it’s about being part of your local community and working with people who are just as psyched to be in the business as you are.” — Adam Avery, President and Brewmaster of Avery Brewing Company. Continue Reading »

The concept of “ambush marketing” is quite tricky and, in some ways, relatively brilliant. Essentially, it is a marketing campaign developed by a non-sponsor company that interferes with an event sponsored exclusively by a competitor. Major sporting events, such as the Olympics, have fallen prey to these gorilla tactics in the past. The bigger the event, the more money involved, the bigger the deal.

“Events like the Olympics and the World Cup are hugely expensive to put on, so they need big-money sponsors and this in turn means that the organizers must protect aggressively against ambush marketing,” — Phillip Johnson, a visiting senior fellow at Queen Mary, University of London. “But this means there is potentially huge exposure for anyone who manages to outwit them.” Continue Reading »

Rumors of nakedness have been buzzing all throughout the country of Argentina. And you might be asking yourself why. Well, let me tell you.

According to Ad Age, Diego Maradona, the head coach of the 2010 World Cup Argentina soccer team, has declared that if Argentina takes home the championship title, he will go streaking through the streets on Buenos Aires. Not wanting Maradona to be the only one running around in his ‘birthday suit’, Pepsi has also declared that it will go naked if Argentina wins the 2010 World Cup. Continue Reading »

Alcohol consumption has a long history of coinciding with major sporting events. And typically, alcohol consumption increases around championship series and games. Budweiser has recognized this issue and, in honor of the 2010 World Cup, has created an ad campaign encouraging people to designate a driver. The ads will run until July 11th.

“Our new ‘Designate a Driver’ campaign is intended to bring our responsible drinking message to life during this time of excitement and celebration. Backed by significant resources, we’ll take our message to millions of consumers over the coming weeks.” – James Watson, marketing director at Budweiser Western Europe Continue Reading »

Baseball, fun for all ages. Beer, not so much.

A viral video capturing a young child (assumed to be between the ages of 3 and 4) allegedly drinking beer in the stands of a Philadelphia Phillies game was recently released on YouTube, causing quite an uproar and outrage across the Internet. Continue Reading »

While watching the LA Lakers shellack the plucky Phoenix Suns in the NBA Western Conference finals the other night, I heard an interesting tidbit escape the lips of Marv Albert, one of America’s greatest commentators.

Albert said that Lakers coach Phil Jackson had recently barred his star forward Lamar Odom from drinking coffee before the game. This is madness! This is JACKSOOOOON! The monotone commander in chief thought Odom was expending all his energy before the game and that he came out flat at tip off as a result of his java jolt. Continue Reading »