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Walter Dunn, Coke's Sports Marketing Pioneer, Dies At 86

Walter Dunn, who in the words of Coca-Cola board member Peter Ueberroth "basically pioneered sports marketing," died on Monday in metro Atlanta of cancer. He was 86. "He understood the value of associating the Coca-Cola Co. with youth and sports fans around the world," said Ueberroth, who is a former Major League Baseball commissioner and chief organizer of the Los Angeles Olympics.

Dunn's son Jeff, a former head of Coca-Cola North America, said that after having had nothing to drink all day, his father had a Diet Coke, smiled, went to sleep and passed away, Joe Guy Collier reports.

Dunn, who retired in 2000 as special assistant to the chairman's office, had been given broad authority in various roles and titles at Coca-Cola dating back to the 1960s. He often made handshake deals that would give Coke marketing and pouring rights at major venues around the world, but he was skeptical of attempts to measure the ROI of these efforts, feeling simply that Coke should be anywhere that people gathered for special events. (See Marketing:Sports columnist Larry Albus for a different point of view about ROS, or Return on Sponsorship.)

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