By: Alessia Korvessis

Date: July 9, 2025

News reporting

Commercials, advertising, and brand-sponsored athletes have become prominent in modern sports culture. These practices have also seeped into nearly every other corporate industry.

Brandon Wallace, an assistant professor of cinema and media studies at Indiana University, gave a lecture to High School Journalism Institute students about how capitalism is becoming increasingly dominant in the world—especially in sports.

Many major brands sponsor players or teams to advertise their products.

“A lot of these mainstream corporations like Nike have these partnerships, right, where somehow social movements and capitalism—as usual—have merged,” Wallace said.

Companies such as Coca-Cola, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Gatorade and Red Bull sponsor teams and events, with their logos and advertisements often front and center. Wallace discussed how these companies are often more focused on profits than on the values of sport itself.

He also explained that capitalism isn’t always used for self-promotion, but sometimes to attract people to a cause or social movement.

Wallace spoke about the Know Your Rights Camp, an organization founded by Colin Kaepernick that works to empower Black communities. At events, attendees received free items like Nike sneakers, backpacks, and even ice cream—gifts that helped draw larger crowds and increased visibility for the organization.

“The central objective of sport, in the U.S. context, is not to win games or to provide anything for fans. It’s to generate profit. It’s to make money for the owners,” Wallace said.

He explained how many sports companies have drifted from the original spirit of athletics and now focus primarily on maximizing revenue.

Wallace encouraged the audience to be aware of how deeply consumerism has become embedded in everyday life. He expressed hope that the true spirit of sport can be reclaimed—because, he said, it has value far beyond its ability to make money.