NFL bans Captain Morgan “ambush marketing”

The NFL has quickly put the kibbosh on a guerilla marketing campaign engineered by rum-maker Captain Morgan.

Ads in which people engineer a brilliant and ballsy solution to a problem or challenge, then striking the “foot up on a barrel” signature Captain Morgan pose, are fairly well known in the US. Philadelphia Eagles player Brent Celek assumed the pose after a touchdown this weekend, during a nationally broadcast game. Celek was later penalized 15 yards for “demonstrating,” and the league has banned the gesture from games as a form of “ambush marketing.”

While the players involved denied knowledge of a campaign by Captain Morgan to sneak the pose into games, it was likely part of an initiative by Captain Morgan to get the image onto TV screens across the country. Although clearly a boon to Captain Morgan rum sales, the plan was also to get money to a charity that assists former players who have fallen on hard times:

The campaign was set to be unveiled next week and was fairly simple: For every time a player was caught on camera striking the “Captain Morgan” during a regular season game, $10,000 would be donated to Gridiron Greats. For each instance in the playoffs, the donation would elevate to $25,000. And for instances in the Super Bowl, the bounty was slated to hit $100,000 per pose.

Captain Morgan has stated that they’re not done with the Gridiron Greats initiative and plan to re-think the campaign in a way that doesn’t violate NFL guidelines.

[Yahoo]