A way of managing the issue, if not solving the ethical problem, may be to
negotiate a sunset clause on naming rights. That is, corporations should
not expect to buy eternal life, nor do we want that.

A very big lump sum might buy, say, five years. Or an annual giving program
might ensure naming rights as long as that lasts. Make it something really
special which has to be earned as well as paid for.

Sponsorship money often comes out of their annual marketing/advertising
budgets anyway and these people expect hard-nosed value for their dollar.
Are we sometimes too pathetically grateful? After all, one imagines that
for Con Zinc a $million sterling would be peanuts as a strategy to clean up
their image by partnership with an esteemed public insitution.

I can think of a theatre named after a corporation because it gave a
reasonable lump in the first year. Fifteen years on it has given nothing
more, yet still enjoys the benefit. Other examples include a university
named after a now notorious bankrupt and jaibird.  Maybe that's the price?

Rachel Faggetter
Natural and Cultural Heritage Interpretation
Museum Studies Unit
Deakin University-Rusden
662 Blackburn Road, Clayton, VICTORIA 3168
Tel: 61.3 9244 7567   FAX 61.3. 9244 7480