It’s absolutely obscene that SI/CNN/Golf.com allow Nike swooshes to appear next to certain golfers on their leaderboard: http://bit.ly/awwI4O. That’s the equivalent of the New York Times having certain news stories sponsored by particular corporations. SPORTS JOURNALISM FAIL.
Uh… not really. The NYT example really doesn’t hold. And I’m actually a little surprised other sponsors haven’t done a similar thing, it’s kind of a neat interaction model for advertising, making the ad relevant to the people looking at the page. It’s really not that much different than NASCAR. Hell, in pro cycling the teams are named for their sponsor, and often time has nothing to do with cycling. Saxo Bank, Radio Shack.. etc. That shows up in every leader board for every race during the season.
So honestly Brendan, I’m not buying that this is somehow obscene…
I’m sure this ad appears on every single news story the Times does: http://bit.ly/dAxLME