NAMES & FACES: Olympic Gold Medal skier Picabo Street's
lawsuit against Sun Valley Co. filed in December (see THE
DAILY, 1/28) for the unauthorized use of her name in
promotions has been "settled in principle," according to her
attorney Kevin Evans. Evans said that "as compensation, Sun
Valley would provide charitable contributions to a couple of
Idaho community groups unrelated to the ski resort or its
parent company" (AP, 2/24)....Al Gore's campaign staff said
that the Michael Jordan TV spot promoting Bill Bradley "fell
flat both with an audience of African-Americans and another
of whites, and that many in the black audience 'chuckled'"
during the ad's showing to focus groups (WALL STREET
JOURNAL, 2/25)....NJ-based Worldwide Entertainment & Sport
Corp. signed eight college football players eligible for the
NFL Draft, including Univ. of WV WR Jerry Porter and
Southern MS WR Todd Pinkston (Worldwide).
OPEN-WHEEL RACING: In N.Y., Scott Miller examines
sponsorships around F-1 racing and writes that "sponsors end
up spending a fortune trying to give their entries a
technological edge," as "backing a losing car can actually
end up hurting a brand's image." Ford Motor Co.'s Premier
Auto Group head Wolfgang Reitzle said involvement with the
series "can backfire if you show that you tried to do
something and failed." Miller notes that the "price to
keep" an F-1 car "on the road for a season may now exceed"
$300M. DaimlerChrysler's Juergen Hubbert said that
"evidence" that Mercedes-Benz has "profited" from its F-1
tie is that cars painted "the same silver as the company's
race car account for" 36% of all Mercedes sold, up from 20%
in the mid-90s (W.S. JOURNAL, 2/25)....N.Y.-based A.D.
Sutton & Sons signed a non-exclusive licensing deal with
CART through the 2001 season. The company will produce a
line of bags and other items bearing the marks of CART, its
teams and drivers (CART).
