Unsponsoring Football

Sign Value, Symbolic Exchange, and Simulacra in a Gambling-Related Marketing Campaign

Bibliographic Data

ID2392413
AuthorsAnthony May (0000-0001-7288-4990, Birmingham City University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume30
Issue3
Pages552-568
Publication date2025-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Research Online (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-7804 • E-ISSN: 1360-7804
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13607804241264684
OpenAlexW4402335592
LanguageEN
References cited35

This article utilises Baudrillard's concepts of sign value and symbolic exchange to examine the 'Unsponsoring Football' campaign which was designed by the marketing and creative agencies VCCP and Octagon, and carried out in conjunction with the bookmakers Paddy Power. Clubs were 'unsponsored' by Paddy Power, which paid for the right to not display its logo on football shirts. The campaign concept involved 'spoof' shirts which are simulations of the 'real' items. A four-step process through which the simulacra develop is outlined in the article. The campaign parodies UK government policy on gambling-related sponsorship, which has been criticised for its failure to regulate what is a globalised market. The 2023 White Paper 'High Stakes: Gambling Reform for the Digital Age' is notably similar to the parodic position taken in 'Unsponsoring Football'. Removing some elements of sponsorship while retaining a wider relationship with the gambling industry means that the gamblification of the sport remains in place

Advertising · Business · Classical economics · Economics · Exchange value · Football · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · The Symbolic · Law · Mathematics · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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