Mountain Dew has retained VT-based Fuse Marketing as
the brand's first and only sports marketing agency (Fuse).
...The Canadian Grand Prix Formula One race has signed Air
Canada to a five-year, $5M-a-year title sponsorship deal
through "at least" 2003 (CP, 6/19)....NHL Wild Managing
Partner Bob Naegele has signed Ducks F Teemu Selanne to
endorse a new high-tech skate designed by his Mission hockey
company (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 6/19).....NBA spokesperson
Dave DeCecco said that the league's decision not to allow
Kellogg to produce a Corn Flakes box featuring the Bulls
"was an internal decision at the NBA." Kellogg Dir of
Communications Karen Kafer, disputed the reported $6.25M
figure the company would have earned from the commemorative
box: "I don't have specifics, but what I can tell you is
that those numbers just aren't true" (BLOOMBERG, 6/18).
....NASCAR VP/Marketing George Pyne is interviewed in
SPORTING GOODS BUSINESS. Pyne: "[I]t seems there is a lot
more appeal for the NASCAR mark than there used to be. I
would rank NASCAR somewhere between a five or six driver as
far as interest is concerned. One of our top selling marks
in our sport this year is the 50th Anniversary mark.
Really, everywhere it's gone it's sold out" (SGB, 6/10).
GOLF: Tiger Woods and his father, Earl, will appear in
a PSA campaign in support of the National Fatherhood
Initiative. The campaign includes a print ad and four TV
spots distributed to commercial and cable TV nationwide in
celebration of Father's Day (THE DAILY)....Titleist took out
full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today
commending the USGA's decision to test high-technology at a
later date. The ad, which features Titleist's balls and
clubs, reads: "Play Away, Please" (THE DAILY).
