Response to "And Now a Word from Their Cool College Sponsor" by Kate Zernike

In her article “And Now a Word from Their Cool College Sponsor,” Kate Zernike talks about two California, college aged, surfer boys (Chris Barrett and Luke McCabe) who have a surfing sponsorship (with First USA, a credit card company) that pays for their education. Being an athlete, I think this is an amazing situation. One of the conditions of their agreement is that every time they make an appearance on campus they need to be wearing First USA gear. They were equipped with "surfboards, surf shorts, camp shirts...and an entire wardrobe's worth of clothing" from First USA. This is a change of pace based on what we usually see—which is paying to advertise for someone with the clothing we chose to wear. The boys are being instead being paid to advertise for the company! Again, this article makes the point that advertising is impossible to escape. I know that for the sponsorship West Chester University has, you are not allowed to wear another brand during competition (other than our sponsor’s). I think this is a fair agreement. In addition to wearing all First USA gear, the boys also have to maintain a C average and behave appropriately at all times. First USA’s goal is to get more college students to have their credit card since the advertising is coming from college students. Credit card companies are usually very tricky but they are proving that they can be trusted by using our peers as advertising. It becomes so common that people don't even realize it's advertising anymore! It's almost like it's invisible.