Sporting organisations are giving "unwarranted credibility" to energy drinks and supplements by allowing them to sponsor events and teams, it was claimed today.
Products are marketed as beneficial for health but there is no evidence to back this, according to medical experts.
Writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics, the experts say sponsorship could mislead the public into thinking these products work well.
Simon Outram and Bob Stewart, of the Institute of Sport, Exercise, and Active Living, in Melbourne, Australia, say that sporting organisations should ban sponsorship by these products.
They cite organisations such as the American Dietetic Association, Dieticians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine as expressing concern about this kind of sponsorship.
They write: "Successful sponsorship campaigns remove or minimise any scepticism about the product.
"A form of seamless or hidden product association is created whereby such products come to be seen as integral to sport — the sports supplement or sports drink.
"It is for good reason that nutritional supplement and sports drinks companies invest heavily in sports sponsorship. Such sponsorship — together with associated product endorsements and advertising — conveys the message that their products are integral to sporting engagement and achievement."
Should nutritional supplements and sports drinks companies sponsor sport? A short review of the ethical concerns Journal of Medical Ethics 23 September 2014; doi 10.1136/medethics-2014-102147 [abstract]
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