The Game Changer Sponsorship Pledge

Sport has a choice to make - it must seize the opportunity at its feet

Football was once a playground for the tobacco industry to promote cigarette brands the world over. From sponsorship of individual teams, leagues and competitions - sport was awash with tobacco sponsorship. The American tobacco company RJ Reynolds even negotiated a deal to advertise at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico despite Mexico already having a ban on tobacco advertising in place at the time.

It was almost inescapable to sit down and enjoy football or any sport without also being forced to consume advertisements from the tobacco industry despite the harm smoking causes being universally accepted. Tobacco sponsorship in the UK persisted until the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 was enacted - consigning tobacco sponsorship in football and many other areas of UK sport to the history books. 

Despite this step-change in sponsorship, there is much more work to be done in relation to the industries that currently dominate sports sponsorship. Sport remains saturated with sponsorship from industries known to cause harm to people and planet. Whether it’s fossil fuel giants, online gambling platforms, or alcohol firms, sport is overflowing with advertisements that look increasingly egregious given what we know about the social impacts of climate change, alcoholism, and gambling addiction.

The harm these industries cause is unquestionable:

• In the UK alone, there are 1.4 million people addicted to gambling, resulting in over 400 gambling-related suicides every year.

• In 2021, the UK saw 9,641 deaths from alcohol-specific causes - the highest number ever recorded.

• Climate change is supercharging heatwaves, floods, and sea-level rise: all of which are impacting communities throughout the UK and beyond. The impacts of climate change are already shaping the future of sport around the world. Last month’s National Games in Mexico was hit by a scorching heat wave which led to the suspension of matches and the hospitalisation of athletes, Multiple sports postponed games as a result of Canada’s recent wildfires and last year’s deadly floods in Germany caused €100m worth of damage to grassroots sports infrastructure.

It is obvious why these industries use sport as a sponsorship opportunity - because it is highly effective. Research shows that fans and spectators begin to associate the intense emotion of sport with the brands that sponsor the teams and tournaments. Over time this results in fans building positive associations with specific brands, often overlooking their more questionable and damaging practices. However, the tide is turning. Campaigns are targeting the relationship between these harmful industries and the sports we love and there have been many successes:

• After community backlash fossil gas giant Santos was dropped as an official partner of the Australian Open

• Visit Saudi was also dropped as a partner for the 2023 Women’s World Cup after pressure from the footballing community

• Very recently Bayern Munich agreed not to renew their sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways after fan protests.

The campaigns against gambling and alcohol sponsorship are growing too. Thirty-one football teams are supporters of The Big Step’s campaign to kick gambling ads out of football and a number of Scottish football teams support the Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) campaign, Calling Time, calling for an end to alcohol sponsorship in sport. The arts and culture sector has also made huge progress in moving away from fossil fuel funding with 14 leading UK institutions ending their funding relationships with the fossil fuel industry since 2016. Most recently the British Museum ended its 27 year long funding relationship with BP thanks to the sustained pressure from campaigners.

Sport has a choice to make - be part of the change or be forced to make the change.

And that’s why we’re launching the Game Changer Sponsorship Pledge. To bring together sports teams, organisations, fans and athletes to create the environment that makes change happen. This new initiative is a collaboration between Badvertising and Platform.

The Game Changer pledge encourages ever-increasing ambition from our partners. Meeting them on their journey from accepting the harms caused by high-carbon, gambling and alcohol businesses to committing to end their relationship with these industries and making the social and environmental impacts of sponsorship deals central to the operation of their commercial departments.

This pledge allows you or your organisation the opportunity to get ahead of the curve on sports sponsorship, opening up new opportunities whilst taking serious steps to protect athletes and supporters as well as safeguarding the future of the sport. Change is coming and we want you on board to make it happen.

The pledge calls on fans and athletes to leverage the issue of harmful sponsorship with their clubs to create an environment in which clubs and organisations can no longer ignore the issues associated with harmful sponsorship and take serious action. Acknowledging the harm sponsorship by these industries causes and committing to end or not renew deals with companies from within these industries.

We recognise that the journey we are asking you to get on board with is ambitious and requires a restructuring of how sponsorship deals are struck. We make no apologies for this ambition, as only this will deliver the change we need to see in the sports we love.

Clubs can, however, track their progress through the pledge from acknowledging the harm sponsorship from these industries cause to committing to end sponsorship deals with all their high-carbon, gambling and alcohol sponsors in our four-step progression plan.

Sport really must do better- it must seize the opportunity at its feet. Sport changes hearts and minds and it must harness its power to deliver the change sport needs to see. Sport’s power and its unrivalled reach means it must lead by example and take action to consign sponsorship from these harmful industries to the history books and reclaim our sport allowing it to thrive for the enjoyment of fans for generations to come.

Please click here for more details about the Game Changer Sponsorship Pledge and to join. If you have any specific questions about the initiative, feel free to email gamechanger@platformlondon.org

Michael Hardy
Director, Game Changer