Yankees run afoul of MLB over player images on beer at Stadium
Images of Yankees players are seen in cups of beer during a media event on Monday at the ballpark. Credit: Twitter/@JeffEisenband
Trouble might have been brewing for the Yankees over facial images of their players — including Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton — imprinted in beer sold at the Stadium. The images were displayed at a media event on Monday at the ballpark.
Major League Baseball does not specifically prohibit players from alcohol-related advertising. When MLB caught wind of the idea and quickly issued what amounted to a cease-and-desist order. “We were unaware,’’ of the images, a spokesman for MLB said Tuesday. “We spoke to the club, the club wasn’t aware, either. To the best of our knowledge, they have told them it’s not authorized, to cease doing it.’’
The spokesman added,”If it involves sales, the player, team and potentially MLB would have to sign off.''
A spokesman for the Yankees said, “Our hospitality team took Monday’s event as an opportunity to test the image machine with various Yankees-related logos and photos. However, the Yankees have no current plans of incorporating this decorative element on concessions items this season.”
A device capable of imprinting such images is called Beer Ripples, but a spokesman denied the company was involved in this incident. “Ripples is the company behind Beer Ripples, the device that can print any image, picture or message onto beer,’’ he said. “We are currently working with Legends, the company that runs the food and concessions stands at Yankee Stadium, who are in the process of testing a number of Beer Ripples machines. Ripples, however, was not involved with this particular activation.’’
The company’s first generation machine was used for images in coffee.
The likenesses of Judge, Stanton, Gary Sanchez and Aroldis Chapman were displayed in Blue Point Beer, which is headquartered in Patchogue and the brewery’s Twitter feed has a photo of the Yankees logo on the top of a beer. But a spokesman for the firm that represents Blue Point said the images were not the beer company’s idea.
“Blue Point doesn’t actually do anything with that, we just brew the beer, we sell it at the Stadium,’’ a spokesman for Praytell Agency in Brooklyn said. “At certain stations at Yankee Stadium they have a machine that will allow you to put the Yankees players’ faces on the beer. If MLB and the Yankees have killed it, it’s done.’’
