marketing
Tit-and-chicken-wing purveyor Hooters has signed on as the exclusive sponsor of
Big Brown, the star racehorse that has already won two legs of the Triple Crown, and will try to complete the feat this weekend at the Belmont Stakes. UPS, the brown-themed shipping company that was was originally the sole sponsor of the horse, inexplicably allowed Hooters to slide in just before Big Brown is set to achieve the pinnacle of its publicity. In addition to being a bad PR decision, UPS' move has now subjected us all to the prospect of Jay Leno (and, less painfully, Tracy Morgan) chuckling about Hooters' upcoming "Big Brown Day":
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public relations
You like to play with the pretty horses? Step away, until you
pony up some cash, ha. High profile horse racing has become an entirely corporate marketing-driven spectacle, where horses are sponsored by UPS and
owned by hedge funds. The
big sponsor of the
Kentucky Derby is YUM Brands, owner of
Taco Bell and KFC. Who could embody the noble spirit of galloping stallions better than the nation's leading purveyor of Mexican Pizzas? Anyhow, YUM's CEO, David Novak, found out the perils of sponsoring an event with live animals when a horse up and died on the track at the Derby last weekend. With no idea what was happening, Novak stepped up moments later and gave his little speech plugging his company, which has proven to the world that he hates dead ponies:
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Gawker
