Advertising May Be in the Cards for Collectors, Traders

You see it on television, along the highways, in the newspapers, at the movies and even at sporting events. You don’t even have to look closely to find advertising with your trading cards, either.

Card manufacturers have traditionally used wrappers and insert cards to push other products made by their parent companies, and collectors never seemed to mind.

But what if you opened a pack of store-bought cards and found an insert promoting Pepsi or Coke? Although the card company people say they don’t foresee it, baseball cards may someday include a word from your sponsor.

Packs of cards that used to go for a nickel in the ‘60s now sell for anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar. Accepting advertising could help the card companies stabilize prices in the same way that commercials have helped bring down home video costs.

Whether Score knows it or not, it has already laid the foundation for bringing Madison Avenue to cardboard.

Although no corporate logos appear, Score’s 1989 football and 1990 baseball sets contain studio photos of Brian Bosworth and Bo Jackson that are readily associated with major athletic shoe ad campaigns. They have left collectors wondering whether the cards represent an advertising deal on the sly.

“No, not at all,” Score spokesman George Martin said. “In fact, we had a lot of trouble getting permission to use the Bo picture.”

Martin said the photographer who owns the rights to the picture of a shirtless Jackson stretching a bat over his shoulder pads was steadfastly against allowing it to be used on a baseball card.

“I’m an artist,” Los Angeles fashion photographer Richard Noble said to Martin. “Baseball cards are certainly not art.”

Martin said he softened Noble up by showing him some artsy Scoremaster cards. But it finally took letters from Nike and Jackson’s agent, and a good word from a vice president of the Ford Modeling Agency, to turn him around.

The result is No. 697 in the ’90 baseball set.

The Bosworth card is another story. The art from an Avia ad showing a shoe and the back of Boz’s famous head appears on the reverse of No. 239 in Score’s debut football set.

Because Bosworth is not a member of the National Football League Players Assn., Score had to negotiate with him directly. “Brian Bosworth’s agent made using that picture a condition of including him in our set,” Martin said. “But we think it’s great.”

Collectors with a sense of humor seem to like it, but many others say: “Big deal. I’ve seen the ad.”

Therein lies the meat of the matter. Avia logo or not, people are aware of what the picture represents. Whether the company paid Score or not, the card buyer has received Avia’s advertising message.

Although Score is using advertising art without accepting advertising fees, these two cards might be pointing the industry toward its destiny. If corporations are already sponsoring bowl games and card shows, can the cards themselves be far behind?

Ball-card advertising would certainly pay off handsomely for the sponsors. Imagine how children would react if they saw Michael Jordan eating his Wheaties or Joe Montana sipping Diet Pepsi every time they opened a pack of cards.

Taking it one step further, maybe every card will have its own sponsor some day, and the reverse of a card featuring some iron-gloved, slow-footed, .198 hitter will read, “This Space for Rent.”