• by John Capone , July 22, 2008

It's the 100th anniversary of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." The story of the backroom deal between the song's lyricist, Jack Norworth, and the Cracker Jack people has been little told. But a 100-year product placement? Talk about your added value. Okay, so maybe not. Maybe Norworth made the plug as an honest lover of caramel-covered popcorn, but rest assured: When it comes time for the Pepsi Party Patrol T-shirt launch at Shea Stadium, it's not going to be goodwill that propels those Hanes Beefy-Ts into the loge section. It's cold, hard cash.

In the movie Fight Club, the narrator posits the future of branding - the frighteningly-near future. "When deep-space exploration ramps up," he says, "it'll be the corporations that name everything: the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks." He might well have taken the world of sports as his starting point. The novel by Chuck Palahniuk proposed the Phillip Morris Galaxy and Planet Denny's (director David Fincher set his sites on Starbucks throughout the film), but the point is still taken. However, a couple of other subtle changes significantly altered the sentiment.

The line, "This way, when deep-space exploitation ramps up, it'll be the megatonic corporations that discover all the new planets and map them," suggests that beyond securing the right to slap a logo on something, sponsorship can have more insidious effects.

You can't help but think of that scene when you see the overhead Goodyear blimp shots of the Staples Center during ABC's telecast of the NBA finals. Yes, overhead shots of the top of a building where an indoor event is taking place. Do you see, fans? Down there under that roof with the Staples logo on it, Kobe Bryant is doing things mere mortals only dream of. Oh, if you could only see it.

Or maybe you're in New Jersey watching a professional soccer team called the New York Red Bulls (née MetroStars). Red Bull skipped buying naming rights to the stadium (though there will soon be a Red Bull Park, don't you worry) and just bought the whole damn team instead, rebranding the franchise to match its soda cans.

Perhaps you enjoy warmer climes. Maybe you're visiting Petco Park in San Diego and the guy in the next seat spills beer out of his Budweiser souvenir cup onto you. You think you might say something to him along the lines of "Hey, buddy, watch the Nikes," but then you notice the Affliction brand clothing stretched across his over-juiced pectorals and think better of it. You've seen the mall-punks wearing their black Affliction Ts screen printed with chains and gothic type back in Short Hills, but you'd never heard of the company yourself until it started its own mixed martial arts fight league to go along with its clothing brand. And it makes perfect sense, because those spike-haired kids were already buying ESPN magazines with backyard brawler Kimbo Slice gazing at them from the cover.

When McDonald's - the athlete's choice for a quick, healthy meal - partners with the Olympic games (through 2012, in fact), you sense some disconnect between brand and sport, though in fairness, just about everyone watches the Games. So maybe it's just a complementary blending of two global brands. Then you see Josh Hamilton on Disney's ESPN, strutting away from the batter's box after becoming a home-run hero in a contest at Yankee Stadium the day before the All-Star Game. The eyes of a thirsty nation are on Hamilton, who comes complete with a dramatic story of drug addiction and redemption, and as he walks toward the cameras, some adorable little scamp hands him a Gatorade. Then this happens again and again, with all the other batters. Who can wait until the day (maybe in 2012) when Ronald McDonald hands gold-medal winners Big Macs, fries and shakes as they ascend the podium?