In response to Mark Sha’s blogpost on the NHL lockout with regards to questioning professional hockey is a sport, business or both, I believe that unfortunately it is swaying towards a business to the detriment of the fans. Though, this isn’t specific to the NHL but all sports.

Specifically, within the article he referenced it starts to delve into European football, and the economics/business behind it. As an adamant follower of the Premier League, specifically Liverpool Football Club, the mentioning of former owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks struck an angering chord within me.

The pair, bought the club using a leveraged buyout, in essence paying for the club with profits made by it. This did not at all going to plan, with the pair ending up vastly in debt, and the club minutes from administration, which would in essence have knocked them down the table, possibly into the second division, and devoid of the form expected from them on the pitch. Worst case scenario, as seen with historic Scottish club Rangers, would be potential expulsion from any league.

If teams can be expelled from leagues solely due to finances, then sports in general are becoming primarily a business.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/marksha/

http://www.economist.com/node/21563293

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/oct/08/liverpool-nine-point-deduction-sale

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/9327059/Rangers-in-crisis-administration-timeline.html

In 2007 in the anticipation of the inaugural iPhone they used media buzz and hyping of the product to market it,  allowing Apple to spend no money on advertisements , which is more or less unheard. Eventually they did spend 97.5 million, but such a tactic undoubtedly saved Apple hundreds of millions of dollars.

In addition to media hype, Apple uses product placement to advertise, which is many cases costs them none. Apple’s marketing manager has convinced many top producers and directors to include it’s products in movies and TV shows at no cost to the company, to the point where it’s been included in 40% of the top movies of 2012.

Such techniques are part of the reason Apple is so successful. In a marketing world where revolutionary techniques are always trying to be discovered Apple continues to find ways to unearth such things. As commercials become more obsolete with DVRs, Apple finds a way to include their product in hit shows and movies at no cost, which not only saves money but creates an aura of sleekness and modernity around each product.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/apple-the-other-cult-in-hollywood

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/06/apple-marketing-secret-phil-schiller_n_1749313.html

Earlier this year, Swiss company Ferraro, makers of the popular spread Nutella, were ordered to pay out between 2.5 and 3 million dollars to plaintiffs alleging they were mislead by the companies’ advertisements.

The advertisements depicted the product as being made of “simple, quality ingredients like hazelnuts, skim milk and a hint of cocoa.” This lead to some consumers purchasing the product, believing what they were feeding themselves or their children was healthy, or at least wholesome and part of a nutritious breakfast. What they may not have picked up on is that a few tablespoons of the spread is about on par nutrition wise with a “Three Musketeers bar” in that it contains about 200 calories, 3.5 grams of fat and 21 grams of sugar. Unsurprisingly this doesn’t exactly correlate with the healthy and wholesome direction that Ferraro were trying to point consumers. As such it came as no surprise to many, when they lost this class action lawsuit in January.

So what does this have to do with the ethics of Ferraro? On one hand, Ferraro can point to the fact that they do not explicitly state that “Nutella is healthy” or try to hide the fact that it’s full of sugar. On the other, in painting their product as one that fits in with a healthy lifestyle, they are deceiving consumers, and ultimately this is poor practice on their part, as it is fundamentally untrue. Had they exclaimed Nutella was tasty, a nice treat, or merely bypassed any direction that could lead one to believe it would be healthy, they’d have been three million dollars richer, and without the poor PR.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/04/27/nutella-lawsuit.html

http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2012/04/nutella_settles_lawsuit_over_h.php