If you watched Thursday night's Ravens vs. 49ers preseason football game, you probably noticed the awful on-field advertising any time either team got in the end zone.

According to BizJournals , Toyota is now the "exclusive auto partner" of the Niners as part of a multimillion dollar deal. Part of the agreement is that Toyota will sponsor the red zone — the area between the 20-yard line and the end zone — at San Francisco's brand new Levi's Stadium, meaning a massive, distracting graphic will appear on the screen any time a team reaches that section of the field.



Luckily, Toyota's red-zone advertising will show up only on the local, KPIX broadcast of preseason games; it is not a national deal. Still, you have to imagine that this is a glimpse of the future, and one that NFL fans aren't going to be particularly pleased about.

Here are two screengrabs, via SB Nation:

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SB Nation

Just awful.

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SB Nation





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