If sponsorship from a loan company is unethical for a club, so are gambling companies and so are alcohol sponsors who make huge profits off vulnerable addicts amongst other things. Yet every club in the Premier League(and probably the Football League) has a gambling sponsor and a beer sponsor.
Also these kind of sponsors that are trying to sell to the fans(rather than Investec and Aurasma who we have) aren't trying to get new customers for the market, rather direct customers who are already in the market to their brand/product rather than another. It's like, if you don't like ale you're not going to start drinking Newcastle Brown Ale just because your team's sponsored by them but it will probably pursuade a good portion of fans that already drink a similar product.
Well we're splitting shells a bit here, but I'd argue whether or not the sponsors are seeking to direct customers away from competitors, or to create new customers for their market depends on that market. TV is everywhere, so an ad for ITV is obviously about its competitors. Are payday loans at the click of a button, on a self service site with TV ads running everywhere? I don't think so. They are looking for the 'oh I didn't realise it was so easy' people.
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