Sponsorships in business and marketing

¶ … Tobacco Sponsorship: Spectator Perceptions at an LPGA Event," was written by Karen E. Danylchuck, hailing from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. Reviewing fan reactions to tobacco sponsorships for sports events, it can be found in Sports Marketing Quarterly from that year. In number 2 of the 9th volume, it begins on page 103 and proceeds for ten pages. The article is a description of a study conducted during a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) game. In the study, researchers passed out questionnaires to the audience in order to judge the reaction of having a tobacco related sponsor involved in the athletic event. According to research assumptions, there is a natural conflict between sporting events, which are thought to promote good health, and the unhealthy ramifications associated with smoking cigarettes. The author provides several points within the article itself. Corporate sponsorship is essential for such games and matches to be produced. They provide much needed cash flows to help fund the event that is for the greater good. Although it does give them good advertising opportunities, it ensures the needed funds to produce such games. As major consumer products with large budgets for sponsorship, tobacco companies present prime sponsors with big donations. However, there has long been the assumption in the community at large that tobacco sponsors have no place in sponsoring events associated with a healthy living connotation. Sports events not only highlight athletes as desired members of society, they also support the notion of health that comes along with sports.

Additionally, sports events tend to have large numbers of young audiences as well. America's youth idolize their favorite sports players and hold them in high regard. Thus, tobacco advertisements tend to show these vulnerable and observational children and young adults that smoking is associated with their favorite athletes. This may make them more eager to try smoking. Yet still, the LPGA included a tobacco company within their arsenal of sponsorships. In order to determine if this was a good move, and potentially be a source of removing the sponsor from the list, they condoned a study of their audience's opinion. The results showed overall that the audience did support tobacco sponsorship, despite its unhealthy connotations.