The cost of sponsorship

[Daydream believer]

They're also out of the sailing Sponsorship game.

I read somewhere that the Hugo Boss Alex T partnership was one of the longest & most successful sports sponsorships for an individual ever formed.

 

[Poignard]

we are on the edge of forum rules here, but the discussion is interesting & i hope I am not exceeding the limits
I do not agree with your comment there.
If a man is working for his country & believes that his country is right, then you cannot say that his hands are not clean. He is doing what the culture of his upbringing has taught him. His country may have been evil to us, but to them they were serving their emperor in the best way they could. To his people he may have been a hero ( i do not know or care)
Can you blame them if since birth that is what they have been taught to do, just because it crossed the beliefs of your country.
It is all down to beliefs & how they view what is right & what is wrong. Their perception may be totally different to yours.
Is that actually bad, when viewed from their perspective rather than yours?
Is it any different to a culture that thinks it is right (I dunno-let's say) to beat their wives, or another that (say) sends children to work in sweat shops when your culture thinks otherwise?

I think it’s important to differentiate between, on the one hand: the ignorant and uneducated soldier, peasant or factory hand and, on the other: those such as military officers, ministers of state, industrialists, scientists, financiers, engineers; those who, even if they had not personally travelled to and been educated in the West could not fail to know its values and what it stood for, ie freedom and democracy.

Members of the former group, raised in Japan’s almost feudal and deferential society, can reasonably be said to have known no better. Conditioned by a brutal military regime, brainwashed, exposed to no point of view other than that of their superiors, it is no wonder that their attitude to war was that of vicious brutes, devoid of all compassion and humanity.

Members of the latter group, have no excuse. They were happy enough to take what they wanted from the Western democracies, their technology, manufacturing, and financial skills, whether it was with the aim equipping Japan to wage aggressive war on its neighbours or simply to benefit from the profits to be accrued in a war driven economy.

But they rejected the West’s finer values, (admittedly not perfectly developed but constantly being striven for): values such as respect for international law and human rights, and the desire to live in peace with one’s neighbours.

The Japanese hierarchy rejected those values because they did not suit their purpose; if adopted, they would have simply got in the way of Japan’s militaristic ambitions.



So, in my view, anyone who, knowing better or who should know better, plays an active part in aiding a regime that wages aggressive war and encourages atrocities, or who applies his skills and knowledge to aiding that regime, whether directly or indirectly, has dirty hands.

 

[BobnLesley]

... no misgivings about owning a Honda petrol generator, a Honda outboard, and a Honda motorcycle, despite that Japanese company's role in WW2...

When I first started work in the mid 70s the Senior Partner regularly berated me for riding Japanese motorbikes, more than once doing so through the window of his Porsche

 

[johnalison]

When I first started work in the mid 70s the Senior Partner regularly berated me for riding Japanese motorbikes, more than once doing so through the window of his Porsche

Although my mother was born in Japan, of English parents, I can only ever remember my parents referring to Japan and the Japanese in disparaging terms, and I think that this would have been normal for that generation after the war. I think that I carried that opinion for many years until I learned enough to have a more balanced opinion.

 

[BobnLesley]

..., I can only ever remember my parents referring to Japan and the Japanese in disparaging terms....

Not surprised... The Japs tortured Biggles.

 

[laika]

I think there are sufficient large businesses doing actively bad things today for me not to stress about associations a modern company may have had half a lifetime before I was born.

I’ve said it before but for me this is the most effective sports advertising campaign I’ve ever seen. Here’s some of the things Boss are currently sponsoring:
HUGO BOSS Group: Sports Sponsorship
Did you notice? Does a golfer wearing their brand want to make you want to buy a boss suit?

That pic of Alex Thomson (and the video) went viral and made it into news articles in the national press. And the suit isn’t just incidental like a footballer being paid to wear a Rolex, it’s a central part of what makes the stunt special. srm mentioned thinking it was a trailer for a bond film and indeed you have all the elements of daring, action and sophistication which must be advertising gold to an upmarket clothing brand. I dont think there were any losers here: This wasn’t a “cheap stunt”, it’s unparalleled marketing genius