Mummy, can we go to the RAC Channel 7 City of Perth?
The City of Perth is contributing $200,000 to the Christmas Pageant. But they want their pound of flesh. Naming rights. Trouble is, there are already two other sponsors. No problem, we’ll just call it “The RAC Channel 7 Christmas Pageant with the City of Perth”. I’m not making it up. That’s what they say the event will be known as.
Now, you know, and I know, the public is not going to call it that. It has been “The Christmas Pageant” since Jesus was a boy. Well, the 1970′s anyway.
It’s a great example of the quid pro quo mentality of modern sponsorship. Sure we’ll kick in some money; WHAT DO WE GET IN RETURN? Very Christmas-spirited of them.
In this case though, by insisting on a naming rights appendix, they just make their event look ridiculous.
Perhaps they should drop the words ‘Christmas Pageant’ altogether and just list the sponsors?
At least the “Pura Cup” is going back to the Sheffield Shield
Yes, thank the RAC Channel 7 God for that.
Hilarious!
I’m sorry for the design agency that had to take that direction… I hope they went down kicking and arguing against it!
It wasn’t until I started working for a reasonably big company that I thought such things were legend.
Sadly not.
These days, in corporate-land, almost every major spend has to have some sort of cost-benefit/business plan attached to it, and a sponsorship with many zero’s in the price tag would need some big backing to get through the beancounters. Mix in the local government angle and you have something far, far worse.
Heck, they probably had to secure the naming rights in order to justify holding the event in the City.
The only thing last year’s event had going for it – my first Pageant since I left Perth in 1994 – was an underground bar just around the corner from the patch of footpath we claimed. Of course, I had a stomach complaint that night and had to make frequent trips (long trips) to the toilet.
It actually made watching the wannabe parade of stars quite enjoyable!
And it will be the 1970′s all over again with the Pagaent reverting to a daytime timeslot, it will be in the morning instead of the afteroon.