Sports are a universal language, transcending generations and captivating audiences worldwide. From the roar of the crowd to the thrill of competition, the magic and culture surrounding sports is often first experienced at an early age, frequently alongside parents and family. Yet, despite kids being monumental consumers of sports content, the marketing surrounding these events often misses the mark, or worse, creates uncomfortable viewing experiences for families at a very impressionable time. It’s time for sports marketers to re-evaluate their strategies and ensure they’re not only reaching their intended demographic but also fostering a healthy environment for the next generation of fans.
The Misguided Focus on the 25-45 Male Demographic
A significant portion of sports marketing is heavily skewed towards men aged 25-45. While this demographic represents a strong purchasing power and viewership, data indicates that youth engagement with sports media is almost universal, with 94% of U.S. children ages 8 to 17 watching, reading about, or listening to sports. Boys show even higher engagement at 98%, and girls are not far behind at 90%. This highlights a critical oversight: marketing efforts are often neglecting the foundational audience that will sustain the industry for decades to come. This is also a blind spot exacerbated by social media algorithms that prioritize certain demographics based on past engagement, potentially overlooking younger, emerging fan bases – boys and girls – on platforms like TikTok and X.
Inappropriate Advertising During Family Viewing
Inappropriate ads are a major pain point for parents. Watching sports as a family is often accompanied by awkward and potentially damaging situations when sensitive content, such as graphic horror movie trailers, ads for adult wproducts like feminine hygiene, or even pharmaceutical advertisements geared towards LGBTQ, appear during a “family-friendly” football or basketball game.
Studies show that children under nine years of age often do not consistently distinguish between program content and advertising and may accept them both as truth. This makes them particularly vulnerable to manipulative or unsuitable advertising, especially when viewed with family as part of “the big game”. With other non-traditional platforms paying big money for a piece of the sports pie, no media is safe. One study found that one in five advertisements that young children are exposed to on streaming platforms like YouTube is age-inappropriate.
Networks, advertisers, and streaming services alike have a responsibility to implement better content filtering for sports programming, acknowledging that a significant portion of their audience includes children and their families. This challenge is amplified on social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok, where ad personalization, while powerful, can also expose young, unsupervised viewers to content entirely unsuitable for their age, blurring the lines between user-generated content and targeted advertising. This isn’t just about consumer preference; it’s about safeguarding young viewers and positively influencing the whole culture surrounding sports. All parties involved need to put in the work and research while holding each other accountable.
Reclaiming Masculine Themes with Broad Appeal
The idea of marketing men’s sports with masculine themes is powerful, but it’s crucial to define “masculine” in a way that resonates positively across all ages and both genders. Instead of excluding, it should embrace themes that appeal to men and also reinforce strong role models beneficial to both boys and girls. These themes should focus on leadership, resilience, dedication, and the benefits of hard work. These are universal values found in sports and in life that inspire and teach. Trending ads like “all-over feminine deodorant” products are clearly out of place during such broadcasts, their nature often too obvious even for young, developing minds to process correctly. This creates an audience mismatch and distracts from the core appeal of the event itself. Networks must prioritize contextual relevance in their ad placements, rather than simply serving up whatever is available on repeat.
On social media, this challenge is magnified. As parents increasingly use smartphones and tablets as digital babysitters, coupled with aggressive, engagement-driven algorithms, children are often exposed to deeply inappropriate ads and content at alarmingly early ages. For a child searching for and attracted to sports content, poorly targeted advertisements, or a misguided meme, can quickly spread across platforms like X and Facebook reaching young eyes, underscoring the critical need for careful oversight of the algorithms, which are now powered or influenced by artificial intelligence (AI).
