Marketplace Round-Up

Urlacher Briefly Sports Vitaminwater Hat During Super Bowl Media Day

Bears LB Brian Urlacher at Super Bowl Media Day yesterday removed a hat with a logo of vitaminwater, one of his sponsors, after Bears Senior Dir of Corporate Communications Scott Hagel “whispered something” to him. However, Urlacher did not remove the bottle of vitaminwater that was next to his microphone “in full view of the cameras” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 1/31). CNBC’s Darren Rovell noted Gatorade pays the NFL $45M a year for an official sponsorship. Rovell: “The NFL is currently reviewing this situation and we’ll find out if he will be fined. Media Day fines could range as much as five times more than regular fines” (“Squawk Box,” 1/31). Raiders DT Warren Sapp, working as a correspondent for NFL Network, told Urlacher, “Hey, you got to realize vitaminwater has got that supplement in it that will come up positive on the test.” Urlacher: “Yeah, right.” Sapp: “Just one kind comes up bad, the orange one. You can’t drink the orange one.” Urlacher: “Really? I don’t drink the orange anyway” (NFL Network, 1/30).

JUST DEW IT: Mountain Dew will celebrate the ’81 and ’82 NASCAR championship seasons of Fox’ Darrell Waltrip, in which his car was sponsored by the brand, with a campaign called “Flashback to Glory.” The effort will include radio ad, print, online and in-store materials (TENNESSEAN, 1/31).

IN THE BUFF: Sabres VP/PR Michael Gilbert said that sales of the team’s new jerseys are “up considerably from last January,” though he declined to disclose figures. Gilbert did say that Reebok manufactured 18,000 jerseys that had sold out and Reebok “was sitting on 44,000 unfilled orders” around Christmas. Gilbert: “Reebok didn’t anticipate such a high demand” (BUSINESS FIRST OF BUFFALO, 1/26 issue).