By Kyle Sharkie

Pic by Kicking the Habit

The public is being encouraged to contribute to the development of a website that will document the rise of unhealthy sponsorship in British sport over the last sixty years. 

A plan backed by the Wellcome Trust named Kicking the Habit will track how sponsorships from alcohol, tobacco and gambling have risen through the years. The site encourages sports fans to submit pictures of sporting memorabilia that connects to these unhealthy sponsorships.  

Dr Fabiola Creed from Glasgow Uni said: 

“This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a uniquely collaborative piece of research and help create a novel and valuable public history resource.” 

Robin Ireland (2019) wrote in the National Library of Medicine that sports sponsorships such as food companies have encourged obesity in children.  

Anna Greenwood’s 2023 research shows that football clubs were receiving gambling losses from their own fans that were using betting sites that they were sponsored by. 

Dr Creed continued: 

“To encourage greater awareness of these marketing strategies, we are building a shared public archive to uncover where these branded memorabilia were given (or photographed), and how some became physically embedded and therefore normalised in people’s lives and homes.” 

The aspect of public participation in this project gives an effective way to record the past and also creates a discussion on this long lasting relationship between sport and unhealthy sponsorship.