Alka-Seltzer drops sponsorship of US Open of Competitive Eating

April 21, 2006 at 11:08 am by ojrifkin · More posts about:Eating and Society, Organizations

bloomberg.com reports that Bayer AG, makers of Alka Seltzer, have severed ties with IFOCE and will not sponsor the 2006 US Open of Competitive Eating or any other future eating contests. Bayer’s US marketing executives apparently wanted to continue the sponsorship, but were vetoed by headquarters in Germany.

Comments (19)

19 Comments »

  1. The Prophet said (Registered April 18, 2006)

    April 21, 2006 @ 11:30 am

    That sucks! I was looking forward to the oppertunity to be a part of that again. I can’t believe that they’re so unwilling to do that just because they feel it’s contributing to American Obesity. It seems overly cautious and ignorant.

  2. Rhonda said

    April 21, 2006 @ 12:05 pm

    Perhaps the IFOCE can acquire another sponsor. Casinos seem to have really started to embrace competitive eating. And they have lots of capital.

  3. Yo Mama said

    April 21, 2006 @ 12:07 pm

    Wow, their logo is already removed from the IFOCE site.

  4. beautifulbrian said

    April 21, 2006 @ 12:15 pm

    I should have been a part of that event last year. Regardless of whether i would have gotten KO”d in the first rd or not is not the issue. Still was loads of fun regardless. Doesn’t mention anything about how ESPN feels about it . Get another sponsor and it might still have life

  5. Allen the Shredder said

    April 21, 2006 @ 12:25 pm

    The Pepto Bismal company should jump on this one..

  6. Yo Mama said

    April 21, 2006 @ 12:32 pm

    Goldenpalace should pounce on this!

  7. Rhonda said

    April 21, 2006 @ 12:40 pm

    Brian, it would have been fun for you — or anyone — to be part of that event. And there’s no shame in getting knocked out in the first round. Didn’t Joey Chestnut lost to Sam Vise in the first round?

  8. Kevin Carr said (Registered April 21, 2006)

    April 21, 2006 @ 1:19 pm

    This stinks. It was a great event last year. Lots of fun for the eaters and some great press. At least it didn’t seem to be an American decision.

    I think that they should get a casino sponsorship and make one of the events a non-eating event where we refuse to eat saurkraut in protest of the German-owned Bayer. 😉

  9. Mega Munch said

    April 21, 2006 @ 1:27 pm

    Eh, sorta makes sense for them I guess. Good point about the casino angle. GoldenPalace.com has worked with the IFOCE in the past and they have absolutely no qualms about spending ridiculous amounts of cash on various food stuffs. Maybe The Food Network can pony up some cash (but probably not enough to compensate for the lost Alka Seltzer sponsorship). Not quite the right audience though. Maybe Maxim magazine? By the way, they’ve got some outstanding office eating challenge videos on their website.

    http://www.maximonline.com/video/stupidfun.video

    In one, an editor tries to eat 10 Slim Jims in 10 minutes. Apparently it’s harder than it sounds. Anyhow…I’m getting off topic.

  10. Bubba said (Registered January 8, 2006)

    April 21, 2006 @ 1:50 pm

    Yeah I hope they get another sponsor for this event I thought it was great last year watching it on TV.

  11. The Tubesock Destroyer said

    April 21, 2006 @ 4:05 pm

    I doubt ESPN wants to be associated with online gambling. I could be way off on that, but most channels have pretty conscientious standards departments…. (Even though TV in general is complete trash).

  12. liz said

    April 21, 2006 @ 4:42 pm

    Oh man! We were so planning on going to that! What a bummer.

  13. Pat From Moonachie said (Registered December 10, 2005)

    April 21, 2006 @ 8:11 pm

    Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, Alka-Seltzer can drink my…..Oh, Nevermind! 😉

  14. SuperPaul said (Registered January 26, 2006)

    April 21, 2006 @ 11:06 pm

    It’s time for Pepcid to come to the rescue!!! How am I ever supposed to get to Las Vegas? I was looking forward to being selected by lottery, getting slaughtered by Kobayashi, and then betting the house on Joey ( 2-5) or Sonya (2-5) or Pat ( 3-1) for placing second….

  15. beautifulbrian said

    April 22, 2006 @ 2:02 am

    Can you blame alka seltzer? They have been in business for over 60 yrs and competitive eating is sort of hard for them to digest. They can deal with “momma mia thats a spicey meataballa ” (remember that commercial from the 70’s) but the corporate bigwigs that run alka seltzer must have took a look at portions of the U.S open and saw a lunatic like Dale Boone barfing down pasta ,rolling his eyes like a mental case and doing a curly joe imitation from the three stooges . Do you think this is what they want representing their company? I dont think so. This is by no means knocking the sport that i am happy to be a part of but i am looking at it from alka seltzer’s point of view. In defense of alka seltzer i think they sort of went into this venture with absolutley no idea of what they were getting themselves into.

  16. Anonyomous said

    April 22, 2006 @ 11:24 pm

    This is a disgrace that alka seltzer is dropping the U.S. open. Even if they get another sponsor it is never the same. TV sitcom taxi was dropped by a major netork ABC in the early 80’s and picked up by UPN 9 or WB 11 but the show was never the same and eventually was cancelled period!

  17. The Sicilian said

    April 24, 2006 @ 12:42 am

    WE have to get a competitve eating television show. Totally. I mean, what the hell, tht show “Fear Factor” has nasty o’l freaks eating worms, bugs, and brains of different animals. Heck that, we have to find our own show. Even if it is on a weak o’l station, eventually people will notice us.

  18. beautifulbrian said

    April 24, 2006 @ 1:18 pm

    Sicilian you find the sponsor and the station and ill host it ok?

  19. SuperPaul said

    April 24, 2006 @ 3:14 pm

    A TV eating show would be great!! We could make it like Survivor, or the NCAA March Madness….64 of us go in, one comes out!! To me, all of our other sponsors throughout the year could get involved…Krystal,Nathan’s, Golden Palace….and why wouldn’t someone like Pepcid AC, Tum’s, Rolaids jump in ??? A show that would also dig into the personalities, I think, would be interesting to non-eaters, too. I mean, let’s face it, most of us are semi-maniacs anyway, all with different reasons and stories of how we got into this….You are right, if Fear Factor is popular, why shouldn’t “FOOD FACTOR” work????? Which would you rather watch, “Elimidate” or “Elimiate”?? As Spongebob would say ” I’m READY!! “

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