As the WWF's XFL "gets its marketing efforts under
way," its ties to the "staged and often on-the-edge
performances of professional wrestling are making
advertising time a hard sell to major companies," according
to Edward Moran of the PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS. While XFL
Chair Vince McMahon promises "the only crossover between the
WWF and the [XFL] will be attitude," Moran wrote advertisers
are "worried that there will be more than naked aggression."
N.Y.-based OMD USA Marketing Partner Dan Rank, whose agency
buys ad time for 87 companies, said of the league, "We've
taken a very cautious approach with our clients because we
haven't seen it. People are too scared. ... The little bit
I've seen of it, it doesn't look like the WWF, it looks like
the NFL. I think they're doing that so they don't scare the
NFL people. But what you buy might not be what you get. I
don't think people will be willing to buy into it until they
have seen it, and I think [the XFL will] be struggling until
then." XFL VP/Corporate Communications Steve Griffith said
that "as far as advertising and sponsorship deals," the
league is "on track but keeping quiet." Griffith: "It's one
of those things where we're going to announce it all at one
time when everybody is happy. We have a substantial amount
of multiple licensing and marketing partners, and a
substantial amount of the advertising is sold" (PHILADELPHIA
DAILY NEWS, 7/25). For new research on the XFL, see (#11).
