Should sponsors be held the same standards as teams?

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by Bharat Nain

If FIRST were to be sponsored by a company that promotes drinking or tobacco, just being around an ad or just having the name written on the FIRST website will make people talk.

...Except that there's already gigantic Budweiser logos located prominently in the Georgia Dome during the Championships, and you'll see similar things in many regional venues too.

If a company wants to help support FIRST and/or teams, I generally think we should accept it. I don't think it's a good idea for FIRST to take on the responsibility of deciding whether a given organization meets some FIRST-defined moral standard. Look at it this way, no matter what a company has done in the past or what you think of their business, as long as they're supporting FIRST aren't they trying to do at least some good?

(* It would be a puzzling problem though to be sponsored by a beer company: I'd have no problem with them as a sponsor, but sticking their logo on the side of the robot wouldn't sit well with me. I would hope in a case like that they would be understanding and be able to work out a compromise [I suspect they would not want to be accused of marketing to minors anyway so that could help the situation]).