The PGA Tour's Western Open "officially announced" a
three-year deal yesterday making Advil the event's title
sponsor as of next summer, according to Mark Brown of the
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. The tournament will be called the "Advil
Western Open" in 2000, but whether it "becomes simply the
Advil Open by 2001 depends in large part on how much
marketing exposure" the brand gets in the first year "while
sharing top billing." Tournament Dir Greg McLaughlin: "We
collectively decided after the tournament in 2000 to
evaluate how the media treats it and how the Advil name gets
picked up across the country, and we'll just regroup at that
point and make a decision." Brown writes that the
"possibility" of a PGA Tour event with its "own well-
established identity" giving up its name is a "measure of
the competition to recruit" title sponsors. American Home
Products, makers of Advil, "indicated a desire to retain the
Western name at least initially in the belief that it adds
value to the deal." The company paid an "estimated" $4M to
secure the sponsorship rights (SUN-TIMES, 5/21). American
Home Products VP/Marketing Joe Gordon is "well aware of the
Western's heritage," and said, "We don't want Advil written
in every sentence ... well, yeah we do." Event prize money
increases from $2.5M to $3M (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/21).
