Browsing through the sports section this morning, I came across this sentence:
UCLA brings plenty of offense to the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl on Thursday night in San Diego….
I’ve been wondering for a while how it is that newspapers got bullied into using the full, sponsored names for bowl games. I understand why TV announcers do it: I assume they’re contractually obligated to use the sponsor’s name. But what’s everyone else’s excuse? Why not just call it the Holiday Bowl and let the TV guys do all the water carrying for the corporate sponsors? Ditto for every other bowl that actually has a name. Does anyone know how and when this entered the stylebooks of our nation’s print media?
