To explore the links between sport and sponsorship.
Objectives
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Think about the role of large companies in football.
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Consider some of the benefits and possible drawbacks of this.
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Begin to consider the implications of global companies for different people.
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Understand that the global economy includes many complex relationships and has many complicated effects.
Resources
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Activity Sheet 1.1
Sporting Fashion or Fashioning Sport information sheet
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Activity Sheet 1.2
Global Market: Pros and Cons
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Activity Sheet 1.3
Benefits and Drawbacks
Tasks
1.
One way to begin this lesson might be to for the students to brainstorm sports / events and their main sponsors. Students could then draw up a list of the good and bad effects of sponsorship.
2.
Read through the details on
Activity Sheet 1.1
. This provides some factual information about the involvement of Nike and Adidas in the 1998 World Cup, and illustrates the extent of their sponsorship. Ask students what they think the benefits are of such significant links between companies and football. Can they think of any drawbacks for each of the facts on this sheet?
3.
Read through the details on
Activity Sheet 1.2
and ask students to write sentences in each of the boxes. This will enable them to think in a more structured way about the question of advantages and drawbacks. If students find this difficult to do, the cards on
Activity Sheet 1.3
3 will help them organise some points - there is an idea for each of the empty boxes in the table.
4.
Students can then compare their answers with each other's in pairs or small groups. This could be done as a whole-class activity by asking students to volunteer their answers and come up with better ones if they have them.
5.
This could lead into several activities:
(a)
A debate about the benefits and drawbacks of multinational companies. The class could be divided into sides to argue for and against, but it might be more useful to give students the flexibility to argue their opinions and provide them with a controversial motion to argue about, e.g. 'Life would be better without multinational companies'.
(b)
An exercise in biased reporting. Students could either write an article criticising multinationals or one focusing on all the positive effects they have on people's lives. This would be a good opportunity for students to look at examples of news stories in the press.
(c)
Design posters for an advertisement or campaign. This could be a more strident version of the previous activity and could also draw on propaganda posters produced by campaigns critical of multinationals as well as publicity material written by them.
Discussion Points
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Did you know sponsorship provided so much money?
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What would happen to sport without such huge sponsorship deals?
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What other implications are there for the sport? (e.g. TV deals influence when and where matches are played)
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In what other ways do multinational companies link people around the world?
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What other multinationals are you aware of?
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Was it always like this? What has changed?
Extension
Cut up the Adidas and Nike boxes on
Activity Sheet 1.1
and ask students to place them under the correct headings. Ask them how they knew where to put each box. If they got it right, how did they know so much about each company? If they got it wrong, what does this tell you about the effectiveness of advertising - does it affect everyone in the same way?
Differentiation
Provide students with posters and articles to illustrate the differences of opinions. The benefits and drawbacks cards from
Activity Sheet 1.3
could also be used as the basis for a role-play conversation in pairs, with each person taking up either the role of the company representative or the anti-multinational individual.
Homework
Watch a sport event for at least 10 minutes and count the number of brands / advertisements you see.