As corporations transcend international borders new questions arise concerning the formation of identities. This study looks at adidas advertising campaigns "Bonded by Blood" and "Of This Earth" and how they represent and commodify Māori culture. "The Making" of "Bonded by Blood" is the video component for that campaign. The "Of This Earth" file is the TV commercial from 2007. Furthermore, this study looked at whether or not these advertisements are in fact reaffirming already established stereotypes about indigeneity and "Otherness." This thesis is informed by Stuart Hall's article "The Spectacle of the Other" as well as works by other scholars who discuss ideologies of Otherness, globalization, glocalization, mobility, and corporate sports sponsorship. The posters of each campaign as well as the video components were analyzed through textual analysis. The results show that patterns of cultural appropriation and reaffirmation of stereotypes do occur in the posters and videos of those campaigns. The two video components are included as supplementary files for this thesis. / 10000-01-01

This study explores the relationship between two theoretical constructs: brand image and brand equity in the context sports sponsorship. The sporting context for the study was the 2003 Rugby World Cup held in Australia. The research focused on the sponsorship relationship between the New Zealand All Blacks and their major sponsor and co-branding partner, adidas. Keller's (1993, 2003) customer-based brand equity models were the conceptual inspiration for the research, with Faircloth, Capella and Alford's (2001) conceptual model - adapted from the work of Aaker (1991) and Keller (1993) - the primary conceptual model. Data was collected from two independent samples of 200 respondents, utilizing simple random sampling procedures. A bivariate correlation analysis was undertaken to test whether there was any correlation between changes in adidas's brand image and adidas's brand equity as a result of the All Blacks' performance in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Results support the view postulated by Keller (1993, 2003) that brand image is antecedent to the brand equity construct. Results are also consistent with the findings of Faircloth et al (2001) who found that brand image directly impacted brand equity.