Stuart Scott for Doritos?

In ESPN The Mag there was a story about Chinese apparel brand Li Ning losing out to one of the big boys Adidas in their bid to be official sponsor for the upcoming Olympics. So naturally, they turned to an obvious choice: sponsoring reporters. Specifically, the state-run network CCTV covering the games. All reporters from that network will wear the imitation Nike Li Ning logo when covering events. (You can read more about Li Ning’s history here.) The funny part though is that a Nike spokesperson said while they admire the very creative move, no U.S. brand would try anything like that, preferring instead to keep a separation between the church and state of reporter/subject. They saw no opportunity presenting itself anytime soon for such a sponsorship.

Oh really.

Like when say, Job Buck shills for Bud in TV spots? Or his World Series game three ‘interview’ with Budweiser spokesman Leon? (Cue brand people high fiving each other that they got real-time in-game brand equity recognition factor 5x5, bitch, yeah!) Or the entire ESPN play-by-play crews who do spots with the teams they cover? Yeah, they’re probably right. Small steps like that leading to outright sponsorship would never happen, right? What happens though the first time a major newspaper turns to having a brand sponsor it because its old ad revenue model just ain’t cutting it as they continue to bleed? It’s not improbable.

Bet someone like Rupert Murdoch tries it soon enough when he buys The Wall Street Journal.

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Tags: Nike, ESPN The Mag, Joe Buck, Li Ning