I don't know the full story but as I was coming into the student building on campus today and seen something on the news talking about Wal-Mart wanting to franchise it's name to the bridge much like companies do with various sport's complexes.

Any details or thoughts?

Burn It!

Hell no. It'd still be the Golden Gate bridge to me no matter what crap they start labeling it as. Thats like renaming the Statue of Liberty as The McStatue of Liberty

Well apparently Mastercard is interested in the labeling rights as well.

The Mastercard Golden Gate Bridge

Wal-mart certainly set their sights low.

I'd shoot for the pyramids personally.

Wal-mart certainly set their sights low.

I'd shoot for the pyramids personally.
Ha! Sam Walton would turn over in his grave. The pyramids? No Wal Mart customers in Egypt!

We shouldn't sell out our historic landmarks

its scary to see these people actually WANTING to pay all the money to just put their name on a bridge, or on a sports arena...

it means that the effects MUST be workings, which is pretty much mind-fucking at its best.

its scary to see these people actually WANTING to pay all the money to just put their name on a bridge, or on a sports arena...

it means that the effects MUST be working........

Excllent observation.

It IS scary to recognize that the masses are so easily swayed by advertising ploys......

of course people are swayed by advertising - the problem these days is people see hundreds of ads a day that it's hard to rise above the clutter as an advertiser. Thats why coke pays studios to have the actors drink it in the movies.

Nah. This is behind-the-scenes type sponsorship stuff:

Neon signs blinking through the fog-shrouded towers? Billboards on the toll booths?

Not to worry, say the managers of the Golden Gate Bridge. Although they are hiring a company to explore the moneymaking potential of the world-famous span, any commercial deals that result would be done tastefully and sensitively.

"People hear corporate sponsorship and they immediately think naming rights," said Mary Currie, a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District. "You are not going to have a change in your bridge experience."

To help close a persistent budget deficit, the district's 19-member Board of Directors is expected on Friday to approve the hiring of a consultant to turn the "district's assets into revenue generators," according to a news release the agency posted at its Web site.

During the initial phase of the project, which is expected to take six months, Novato-based Sponsorship Strategies would research how other historical landmarks have boosted their earnings by working with corporations, said company owner Kevin Bartram.

For comparison, Bartram cited the Sydney Opera House and the Statue of Liberty restoration project.

"You didn't have signs or logos stuck on the Statue of Liberty," Bartram said. "We're not talking about hanging banners on the bridge. No company is going to invest money in a sponsorship that's just going to cause a lot of flack in the community."

Examples of the kind of sponsorship ideas that might be considered are having companies provide branded safety gear for ironworkers to wear while working on the bridge, or pay to digitize the district's historical archives. --SF Gate (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/11/16/state/n125840S82.DTL&hw=golden+gate+bridge&sn=004&sc=699)