Boston Pizza changes Pizza Shape to celebrate UFC

Canadian Pizza Boston Pizza is making pretty good mileage out of its partnership with the UFC.  Witht he launch of the "Octagon Pizza" the chain will provide fans with an ultimate eating experience that they can't get anywhere else.   Says Steve Silverstone, Executive Vice President of Marketing at Boston Pizza, "The Octagon Pizza from Boston Pizza is a great way for us to offer our guests an enhanced UFC® experience before they head to the fight or when watching Pay-Per-View events with friends and family at Boston Pizza."

As an official partner of the UFC® in Canada, Boston Pizza can offer other unique experiences exclusively to Boston Pizza guests. In addition to the launch of The Octagon Pizza, Boston Pizza is sponsoring a national contest on the UFC Canada Facebook page. The contest, called Tough Enough, launches gives UFC fans from across Canada the opportunity to win the ultimate UFC 152 weekend in Toronto on September 22-23.

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