Rut-Roh

As it turns out, I have an issue with the Hawaii 70.3 race I'm doing in June. It's hard to explain, but I will try.

This is the race I did last year:



We call it "Ironman Wisconsin", although technically the event name is "The Ford Ironman Wisconsin." And I'm fine with that. I understand corporate sponsorship; I work for a large company myself and I recognize all the joy and wonders that big corporations bring to the world. It's OK if Ford adds their name to the event, and I'm fine with them incorporating their logo into the event logo.

This is the event I'm doing in June:



The first thing I thought when I saw this logo was "what the hell is 'rhoto'?" The next thing I thought was "wow, that's a dumb company logo... they can't even align all the letters in their name." But the big issue I have is that they had to include the tag "cooling eye drops" in the event logo.

There isn't a logo that says "Ford: Quality is job one Ironman Wisconsin." They don't say "GE: We bring good things to life Ironman Schenectady". So why do we have to brand ourselves with "Rhoto cooling eye drops Ironman 70.3 Hawaii?" It ruins the look of the logo and it's just stupid.

I want to be clear (as clear as your eyes will be, once you use Rohto cooling eye drops!) - I know that the announcers will never say "cooling eye drops Ironman". I know they added those words to the logo because nobody ever heard of Rohto and they want to build product recognition. I just feel that if I buy an event jersey, there's a difference between being a walking billboard for a company, and actually promoting a PRODUCT. It sounds subtle, but it's true.

Rohto also sponsored the Oceanside California 70.3 this past weekend, and they do the Miami 70.3 as well. I don't know how many other events they do but I don't like them. (And yes, I'm sure I'll still buy lots of Rhoto cooling eye drops Ironman 70.3 Hawaii merchandise.)