Budweiser just made big change that could be bad news for anthem protesters
If there’s one takeaway from professional sports in the era of the Trump administration, it’s that sports have never been under a more scrutinizing political microscope.
Everything a professional athlete chooses to do or not do will inevitably draw some sort of political criticism and analysis.
That being said, few sports topics draw fervent passion on both sides of the debate like national anthem protests.
The NFL, in particular, has been rocked by rampant national anthem protests and the strong reaction it draws from viewers.
Across the board, NFL ratings are down. Ratings fell by nearly 10 percent in 2017, which were already down another 8 percent from the season before that.
The ripple effect of the dwindling viewership has also hit NFL advertisers and their bottom line.
Viewership was bad enough in the 2017 season that the NFL actually had to refund some of their advertisers money.
Well, one of those prominent NFL advertisers is shaking things up after the up-and-down season, and it could have an impact that will be felt for years to come.
Anheuser-Busch, parent company that brews Budweiser, is changing how its sponsorship works with various sports entities and there’s a very curious line in there that seems to be directed at anthem protesters, per Forbes.
According to Forbes, the brewing conglomerate spent an estimated $350 million on advertising in 2016, so they have some vested interest in their advertising returns.
Now, Anheuser-Busch is altering how they dole out that sponsorship money.
“Those are legacy [sponsorship] models that were created on a consumer behavior that is no longer there,” says Joao Chueiri, vice president of consumer connections at Anheuser-Busch. “We need to evolve the model, and as the leaders in the industry, we are pushing for that evolution.”
Instead of an athlete or team being locked into a concrete sponsorship contract, Anheuser-Busch is introducing new incentive-laden sponsorship deals with teams and athletes.
These new deals will be heavily incentive-based. Interestingly, those incentives will be based on both on-field and off-field activities.
By wanting to regulate off-field activities, Anheuser-Busch is taking a step the NFL has been afraid to do and actually tie dollar signs to appropriate sideline behavior.
Thus far, Anheuser-Busch has begun rolling out these deals with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and NASCAR as a whole.
It’s a bold move from Anheuser-Busch, and could be the first big step toward stamping out anthem protests in sports.
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