Beats By Dre Got a Bunch of Free Advertising Exposure from the NFL this Week

Last weekend, we learned that Bose would become the Official Sound of the NFL. It’s early in the game, but the intended consequence of suppressing exposure for competing Beats By Dre headphones has failed miserably. Colin Kaepernick ignored the embargo in the 49ers’ postgame press conference this week; Richard Sherman was shown wearing the headphones on national television (which might’ve been more of an issue on ESPN’s end than Sherman wearing the headphones when he was not allowed) while Kaepernick got fined $10,000, which was written up to the extent that it trended on Facebook.

It’s unclear whether Sherman got fined as well; it’s almost implied that the brand is comping the players’ fines (UPDATE: maybe not), and it goes without saying that $10,000 or $20,000 is a pittance compared to the exposure they’ve gotten this week. The sponsorship analysis firm Front Row Analytics said that Richard Sherman generated $384,000 in exposure for Beats By Dre on Monday Night Football, and Kaepernick’s mention on Thursday’s PTI alone generated another $56,600 in exposure for the brand.

According to Google Trends, Beats By Dre has moved in lockstep with Bose in as far as being mentioned in conjunction with the NFL since the sponsorship was announced:

This chart doesn’t yet include Thursday, when the Colin Kaepernick news lit up the interwebs. Given that Bose had to pay whatever princely sum is required of the NFL to be an official brand, and Beats By Dre had to pay just $0-20,000 to cover the league’s discipline, which side would you rather be on?

Players have been getting fined for impermissible brand exposure for nearly 30 years. In 2007, Brian Urlacher was fined $100,000 for wearing a Vitamin Water hat at the Super Bowl. In 1986, Jim McMahon got fined $5,000 for wearing an Adidas headband. The league threatened to fine Brent Celek in 2009 for striking a Captain Morgan pose after touchdowns.

If Kaepernick (and possibly Sherman) continue to wear the headphones at times where they’re not allowed to, the fines will increase. Who-on-Earth-knows what the break-even point would be for Apple to keep footing the bill, but it might be in the millions. As Darren Rovell noted, if it continues unabated, there’s a chance it could ultimately lead to suspension. As draconian as it sounds, that honestly might be the only way to make it stop.

An earlier version of this post has been corrected to note that Sherman did not necessarily wear the headphones when he was not permitted to, and that it is not a foregone conclusion that Apple paid Kaepernick’s fine.