Corporate Sponsorships

• Corporate sponsors are there to promote themselves. They are obviously getting marketing from being a sponsor and it gets their name out there. So if they have the money to sponsor, essentially, they are receiving free marketing. I am a big fan of Motocross and Supercross and so I would like to use this as an example. When a rider wins and gets up on the podium they stand there and thank a million of their sponsors. In many cases you can see their eyes reading a board that has a list of all of their sponsors. Sometimes riders who are sponsored by Rockstar or Monster energy drinks have a drink on the podium and are drinking it. Lets get real, no one wants to slug down an energy drink right after racing around a dirt track for 30+ minutes. If corporate sponsors were there to support the cause, and only the cause, then I don't think the athletes would spend so much time thanking the sponsor. Instead they might spend time thanking their loved ones and the cause. In a way everyone may be winning. The cause gets support and the sponsor gets free marketing. But I definitely do not think the corporations are there just for the cause.