A-B signed Prescott despite his future with the Cowboys being unclear and his injury-shortened '20 seasonGETTY IMAGES
A-B InBev has signed Cowboys QB Dak Prescott to a long-term marketing deal. The move is intriguing for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that Prescott’s future with the Cowboys is unclear and he is coming off a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle that caused him to miss 11 games this past season. Despite the uncertainty, the addition of Prescott to A-B InBev’s marketing artillery is significant. Molson Coors has had exclusive sponsorship rights with the Cowboys for more than 40 years, and the brewer has augmented its ties to the franchise by using Pro Football HOFer Troy Aikman in its marketing. Prescott's other sponsorship deals include Beats, Dannon (Oikos), Pepsi, Sleep Number and PlayStation.
RULES HAVE BEEN EASED: Long-held restrictions on the use of active athletes in beer advertising have loosened up in recent years. Active players now can appear in beer ads, but not in uniform. They also cannot “directly endorse” the product, which is certainly open to interpretation. Additionally, marketing rules are often relaxed during recessions, therefore activation plans for Prescott and A-B InBev behind Bud Light and possibly some of the brewer’s rapidly expanding portfolio of hard seltzer brands are very much TBD. “It’s a fluid category and player rights in that category are also fluid,” a source said. Social media rights for active players touting beer are considered “in transition,” another source said. The source: “We’re at a time when every property needs to embrace categories, if they are going to show growth there, because we’ll be in a buyer’s market because of COVID for a while yet.”
