Controversies in Sponsorship: Heineken and Budweiser

Time to have a look at a few controversies from the world of sponsorship.

First off is Heineken:  The beer maker has been slammed in traditional and social media since photos of a dogfight with prominent Heineken branding went viral.  The event apparently took place in a Mongolian nightclub in 2011 and of course, the brand is highly unlikely to have had any conscious involvement in it.  However, examples of the angry responses from consumers can be found here and here

Given this tendency of consumers to shoot first and ask questions later, Kevin Allen of PR Daily has some very useful tips on how to handle such a crisis.  Click here for more detail.

Meanwhile, Anheuser Busch's decision to sponsor the UFC (A prominent US based Cage Fighting Association) has precipitated outcry from a number of quarters.  On April 18, Alcohol Justice, the U.S. based alcohol industry watchdog, issued a memo to major shareholders expressing concern over the bloody, violent, sexist and homophobic advertising and content of UFC cage fighting events.  In addition, remarks by some of its roster fighters were deemed to be derogatory over sexual and gender issues.  AB's response was to issue a warning to the UFC saying that homophobic and sexist comments would not be tolerated.

Further salt to the wound's of offended activists and watchdog groups came from an ad featuring a UFC octagon girl promoting UFC 132 and specifically promoting Bud Light Lime.

A no holds barred open letter by Alcohol Justice to A-B shareholders can be found here.  Meanwhile, in what is probably an attempt to focus people's attention on the athletic confrontation of cage fighting, Budweiser has released a series of short films to support the partnership.  It features iconic stalwarts of the Octagon such as Anderson Silva

Tiger Woods shuns the press and goes straight to fans online

As the social web continues to grow, each new day brings fresh ideas of how brands can put sportsmen in closer contact with their fans.  We've looked in previous posts at how Cadbury is using Google + hangouts to put fans in touch with their favourite Olympians.  David Beckham hosted a fan Q&A on a hangout too.

Though he's had a less than stellar run of play, Tiger Woods is still a big deal with the fans.  He has over 2.5m Facebook friends and a massively popular website of his own.

Mashable reports that Tiger recently shunned a traditional Q&A with the press in favour of a more intimate online chat with his fans.  In a 14 minute video hosted on his site, Tiger addressed questions which fans had logged on his Facebook page or through Twitter.  In it, he covered topics ranging from his favorite pro golf memories to practice schedules to how he decides on which clubs to use and when.   

Naturally some see the practice as a bit of a cop-out.  In this way, the press can't ask the harder questions on his performance (both on the course and off) - and all questions from fans are moderated up front.  Still, it's a nice idea.

Exploiting a key Olympic Property: The Flame

As Olympic traditions go, you'd be hard pressed to find a more revered one than the Torch Relay from Olympia in Greece to the host country itself.  The flame arrived in the UK on May 18 after a journey through more than 130 countries and for the next 3 months will be making an 8000 mile through the British Isles before settling at the opening ceremony on 27 July 2012.  Samsung as one of the three official partners of the Olympic Flame has developed the "Go Flame" app to extend the experience of the Olympic relay to a broader audience. 

Another of the three relay sponsors is Lloyds TSB. Check out what they're up to in the film below: