US photographers resist being "mobile billboards"

US media are resisting the National Football League’s demand that media photographers on the field wear red "flak jackets" promoting NFL sponsors Ricoh and Canon. According to Philip M. Stone of FTM, the move is designed to make photographers "moving billboards" to earn more sponsorship money - the value of which was "proven by Nikon" at the Asian Cup. "Photographers at the Asian tournament in Indonesia had to wear yellow flak jackets with Nikon’s name in bold lettering on the back. As the fairy tale championship game ended with Iraq winning swarms of photographers flooded the playing field, surrounding the Iraqi team. And on television all one saw at times was a sea of yellow flak jackets prominently saying Nikon. Whatever Nikon paid for that privilege it sure got its money’s worth," he wrote.