Devils, Capitals become first NHL teams to place brand advertising on helmets
The New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals will become the first NHL teams to sport advertisements on their helmets for the upcoming season.
New Jersey.will be sporting the Prudential logo on its helmets, while Washington has partnered with Capital One ahead of the 2021 campaign.
We're proud to be the first @NHL club to have brand placement on our helmets.
Proud to Rock with @Prudential, home and away. pic.twitter.com/e1WhZ1ZG33— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) December 22, 2020
#ALLCAPS 🤝 @CapitalOne
The Washington Capitals have announced Capital One as the team’s season-long official helmet entitlement partner with the placement of the company’s branding on the team’s helmet.
Full Details: https://t.co/CWgaSNDsaF pic.twitter.com/FwUqP2Xa5R— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) December 22, 2020
As the author of this piece, I personally don’t feel any type of way about the advertisements. I suppose if you really wanted to, you could examine how this is another tiresome way capitalism manifests itself, but ultimately teams wanted to recoup some lost revenue exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other people, however, felt quite strongly about the helmet decals. Below are some of the best reactions from fans and journalists, alike:
Uniform outrage
Grossest part of the Devils' helmet ad deal: They're putting the ad on the helmet *of the statue outside the arena.* pic.twitter.com/Q0GWPf7sOi
— Paul Lukas (@UniWatch) December 22, 2020
OK, have to admit, “helmet entitlement partner” is just vacuous brand-speak that we don’t need. Alas.
It's amazing and embarrassing to see how far people will go to avoid saying the word "advertiser." pic.twitter.com/CiWWcIGyIo
— Paul Lukas (@UniWatch) December 22, 2020
Under this dystopian timeline, will we eventually get the Capital One Capitals?
Thank god, how else would I know who our main sponsor is? pic.twitter.com/9Y8SdneXpT
— Eternally Suspended (@BurakAVSky) December 22, 2020
Who's writing this copy? Absolutely nothing to be proud of here. Beginning of the end of NHL uniforms. https://t.co/qKPnNKsF97
— icethetics (@icethetics) December 22, 2020
Advertising is immoral both to buy and sell, a corruption of whatever it touches by definition, and its entrenched presence throughout society is shameful and shouldn't be accepted. There isn't some magical amount of badness that makes additional badness not bad.
— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) December 22, 2020
NHL joins NBA, Soccer
The NHL is far from the first league to adopt advertisements on their uniforms, and though it did seem like it would be a big deal at the time, does anyone really notice the logos on NBA jerseys?
To all of y'all who are making a big deal about this, nobody will notice it in a month, it was the same with the NBA jersey advertisements and the Nike swoosh on MLB jerseys
— Shaan (@sdvard3) December 22, 2020
to all of you weirdos crying, this could’ve been so much worse. it looks natural on the helmet, and it doesn’t have to be forvever. it’s one season. you’re going to be okay, i promise.
— jake (@jeksny) December 22, 2020
TSN’s Ray Ferraro also rightly points out that soccer has long used advertisements on jerseys, and no one really complains.
You mean the most popular sport in the world? Doesn’t seem to hinder fans enjoying the games https://t.co/myZop1Rpoc
— Ray Ferraro (@rayferrarotsn) December 22, 2020
The @NJDevils are the first team in the @NHL to announce a helmet sponsorship, with @Prudential.
This is a mock up of what it will probably look like in NHL 21. pic.twitter.com/lI1MjxtUgT— ᴀʀᴅᴀ Öᴄᴀʟ (@Arda) December 22, 2020
My opinion - I get it, lots of people don’t like change. Others don’t want it to look like racing. But once upon a time jerseys didn’t have names on the back and the boards didn’t have ads on them either. It doesn’t bother me as much as it might others.
— ᴀʀᴅᴀ Öᴄᴀʟ (@Arda) December 22, 2020
The Devils are the trailblazer...the first team to announce this sponsorship. I was wondering how intrusive it may look. That's not bad at all.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) December 22, 2020
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