Super Bowl Ads to Further Confuse Us on NFL “Official Sponsor” Status

The most-watched annual sporting event is coming up this Sunday and advertisers continue to speculate that the money they spend for a 30-second or 60-second advertisement will catapult them to the top of the business elite.  CBS has already announced that every ad slot has been sold for Super Bowl XLIV (44 for those of us who didn’t grow up in Ancient Rome), with much of the hoopla surrounding the Focus on the Family pro-life (anti-abortion) ad starring Tim Tebow.

What is interesting in regard to the Super Bowl ads is how many of them are done by corporations that are competing against official NFL sponsors.  Over the years, Anheuser-Busch has used the game as a platform for its yearly advertising of Budweiser and Bud Light, even though Coors Light is the official beer of the NFL.

Coors’ sponsorship began in 2002 with a five-year, $300 million deal with the NFL to be the official beer of the League.  In 2005, Coors extended its agreement with the NFL with a new five-year, $500 million deal, which is set to expire this year.  It is expected to renew the deal without much competition, as InBev, the owner of Anheuser-Busch, looks to cut back on spending of this nature.

Here is a look at other NFL sponsors:

Visa is the official payment service of the NFL, a moniker it has held since 1995.  The company signed a five-year contract extension in 2009, meaning it will continue to be the official payment service of the League through 2014.  Unfortunately for Visa, countless NFL fans assume that MasterCard is an official NFL sponsor because of its ads starring Peyton Manning, who just happens to be playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday.  Expect MasterCard to go hard with the Manning ads throughout the game (CUT THAT MEAT! CUT THAT MEAT!).

Sprint is the official wireless provider of the NFL, beating out AT&T and Verizon for the mark.  While this seems like a good get for Sprint, many more people are familiar with the AT&T and Verizon map commercials that pound each other and never mention Sprint.  While customers of Sprint can watch live NFL Network broadcasts on their phone, so few people actually have the Network as it is, so I don’t see a long line of people jumping for Sprint phones anytime soon.

Pepsi, and not Coke, is an official NFL sponsor, something that trickles down to their other brands such as Frito-Lay and Tropicana.  An agreement was reached in 2004 which made Pepsi pay $560 million over eight years to be able to use the NFL shield and other properties on its products.

Not to be outdone by its parent company, Gatorade also has an agreement with the NFL that allows it to be an official sponsor thanks to an annual $45 million payment to the NFL over eight years, which started in 2004.  While $45 million per year is a startling figure, it apparently does not include a guarantee of $16 million per year in marketing commitments and $1.2 million worth of Gatorade for the League’s teams.

McDonald’s was a presenting sponsor of the 2010 Pro Bowl, but has not always been the official QSR (quick service restaurant) of the NFL.  KFC was formerly the official wing sponsor of the NFL.

Reebok continues to put its logo on NFL uniforms, even though it most likely outsources the actual production.  Putting company logos on uniforms is taboo in the United States (at least for actual game uniforms in men’s sports) and yet there is Reebok’s logo on every single NFL jersey during every game.

Proctor and Gamble has also added to the fun, using it’s Gillette and Old Spice brands to become an official sponsor.

The biggest day of the year in Pizza is always Super Bowl Sunday and the official pizza sponsor of the NFL is, of course, Papa John’s.

FedEx beat out UPS for the official sponsor tag, agreeing to a four-year extension in 2009.

Bank of America is the official bank of the NFL, earning it with a 2007 agreement making it the first ever official bank of the League.

The Home Depot also jumped into the fray in 2007, although it doesn’t seem as determined to flaunt it as everyone else.  Although maybe that’s a bad thing.

Canon is the official camera of the NFL, which seems like a pretty safe bet since Nikon and Kodak don’t seem to be too aggressive in moving into the sports stage.

Overall, it’s difficult for fans to understand which companies have the official sponsor status and which ones do not.  Unfortunately, the NFL doesn’t provide a comprehensive list of the companies that it has suckered into becoming official sponsors.  I call them suckers because the “official” status doesn’t give them any added benefits that one would think they should get, such as reduced Super Bowl ad prices.  That’s right, whether its Coors Light or Bud Light, both are paying the same amount for their Super Bowl television ads.

So when you’re sitting and watching the Super Bowl and thinking that MasterCard is an official sponsor of the NFL because they use Peyton Manning so well, understand that Visa is actually blowing its opportunity to get in your head and doing so at quite a price.