Toxic sponsorships: How brands are avoiding partnership pitfalls

Eliud Kipchoge wins the London Marathon men’s elite race, 2018. Photo: Thomas Lovelock.Awkward stories around brand partnerships have cropped up at regular intervals over the past year. Only this month the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) terminated its eight-year partnership with oil giant BP, while the National Theatre ended its association with Shell amid significant pressure from environmental campaigners, activists and performers.
However, with public funding falling away arts organisa