Wyatt Hamilton's Blog

Two different blogs this week both touched on similar themes. Scott Wasden and Kaylee Astle talked about risqué advertising, and how it may grab the attention of consumers, but can also lead to negative associations towards a brand. Every firm is ultimately in control of how they want to advertise they’re products, and what image it will create for them.

This made me think of major sponsorships in professional sports. Corporations spend significant amounts of money in order to advertise along side teams in every major sport in North America. A lot of controversy has been in the news lately about Air Canada and their threats to pull sponsorship from the NHL if they don’t start addressing certain on ice matters, more specifically head shots.
For those of you who are unsure of the incident that sparked these discussions, it happen in Montreal in a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins. Zdeno Chara hit Montreal forward Max Pacioretty into the side boards. He suffered serious head truama and had to be taken off on a stretcher. Chara was assessed a major penalty but no further disciplinary actions were taken by the league for it was deemed unintentional; a clean hit that lead to unfortunate consequences.
Air Canada’s director of marketing Denis Vandal wrote a letter to the NHL offices saying “Unless the NHL takes immediate action with serious suspension to the players in question to curtail these life-threatening injuries, Air Canada will withdraw its sponsorship of hockey.”

Personally, I am having trouble legitimizing the boldness of this statement and with what Air Canada is trying to do. It is no secret that hockey is a physical sport and injuries do occur, but there is little doubt that Air Canada was not aware of this physicality and risk involved in the game before they began their sponsorship of six Canadian and five American NHL teams. Regardless of the airline’s intention, pulling sponsorship in Canada alone would seem to be bad business for an already struggling company. Canadians hold such passion for hockey, and for Air Canada to step in and give the National Hockey League an ultimatum will only drive customers away from them. This threat (which seems to become emptier each day) has  garnered a lot of negative attention, and has left fans and customers with a distaste towards Air Canada as a brand.

Lets face it , Air Canada as an airline company hasn’t always proven themselves to be a fan favorite. With the availability of so many quality alternatives, choosing an airline such as West Jet won’t be much of a push outside of a loyal consumer’s comfort zone. This time however, good intentions aside, Air Canada may have done the pushing themselves.