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Playground Sponsorship: Car Dealerships & Divas

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While home for the holidays last week, just as Capital One announced it was going to donate $85,000 to cover tonight’s free TTC rides, I discovered this playground sponsorship in the Tecumseh — the Pickering of Windsor — park I grew up playing in. The TTC sponsorship has not been greeted with the same controversy as the Mastercard outdoor rink donation back in October, perhaps because this is more of a “special occasion” than a normal service the City is expected to provide on its own. The Saturn sponsorship is rather garish and without any sense of dignified philanthropy as not one but two big signs were installed to continuously remind the children and their parents who is responsible for their fun.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=vMJNrYEleBA[/youtube]

Playground sponsorship is not without its over-the-top precedent. In 1983 Diana Ross held a free concert in Central Park and donated the television rights to building the Diana Ross Playground. 300,000 people came out to see the concert, but as you can see in the video above, it famously rained during the show. Ross, extreme diva but ever the trooper, told everybody to come back the next day and 500,000 showed up (possibly 800,000 to a million — figures I found varied). The concert was not as profitable as planned, and Ross ended up donating $275,000 herself to the playground which was eventually built in 1986.

Back to Tecumseh and thinking of the children, one wonders what the possible residual effects of the Saturn sponsorship will have on them and their impressionable brains. Sandra Bernhard provides a cautionary tale for this kind of sponsorship when she appeared on The View last year, saying the Diana Ross Playground is a place where “children learn to be vicious, backstabbing, and throw their arms up in front of other children.” If just one Supreme can have this effect on the kids, there is no telling what a whole car company could do.

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6 comments

  1. In this particular case, I think we’re safe. Saturn is a GM subsidiary, and GM is going the way of the dinosaur. By the time these kids reach driving age GM will be about as relevant as Pets.com…

  2. “The TTC sponsorship has not been greeted with the same controversy as the Mastercard outdoor rink donation back in October…”

    Eh, I tried, but it was a half-assed effort.

  3. Don’t count on it. Even if GM goes for the big dirt nap Toyota is likely to come along and snap up the dregs for pennies on the dollar buying the loyalties and brand recognition that remains. Remember Toyota? Those nice people who have the promotional spot on PBS Newshour depicting a motor vehicle passing a cyclist on a curve without crossing the centre line? Can you say “illegal in 12 states” where 3 feet must be maintained between the motor vehicle and cyclist in passing? Can you say “Toyota promoting unsafe driving”? Can you say “Where the hell is MTO in amending the HTA as outlined in the Coroner’s report of 1998” specifically “Section 130(2) Careless Driving

    Maintaining an appropriate and safe distance between motor vehicles and bicycles need more emphasis in the HTA.

    Suggested wording for consideration is as follows:

    Upon passing a bicycle, drivers or operators of motor vehicles shall maintain a distance of least 1 meter beside. Upon traveling behind the bicycle, drivers or operators of motor vehicles shall maintain a distance of at least 3 meters behind. Where a traffic lane is too narrow to share safely with a motor vehicle, it is legal for a bicycle to take the whole lane by riding in the center of it.”?

  4. I don’t see what the problem is with corporate sponsorships. This provides financing for projects that would otherwise have to be paid for by our tax dollars.

  5. tdotg:

    Pretty simple, really — you almost always see the end user (the public) get shafted in other ways than financial. EXAMPLES: Nuit Blanche having Scotiabank act like the event was an ad for them with art as a secondary concern, or corporate funding for street furniture that places the advertiser’s needs above that of the public, such as the MegaBin’s placement and functionality.

    One could also argue that marketing should be the last thing entering playgrounds — it teaches kids that almost anything should be sold for marketing an advertising concerns. Also, you could argue the City often undersells the value of visual space we hand over to the sponsors.

    I can support corporate philanthropy (like in Chicago’s Millenium Park) and certain foundations, but I will almost always be wary of sponsors like Saturn who use it as a marketing ploy.