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Brandt talks about the impact sponsors have had on our society. Sponsors have improved literacy standards over time. “It is actually this large gap in sponsoring forms that we call the rising standard of literacy. The pace of change and the place of literacy in economic competition have both intensified enormously in the last half of the 20th century” (344). To make profit literacy is constantly changing and improving. Competition changes the standard for literacy, because sponsors are always trying to out due their competition. Brandt believes sponsors always have something to gain from sponsorship. The gain can be economic or non-economic. Sponsors can influence people politically. Having people take their side on political issues serves as a gain. Sponsors can also gain by having people adopt a certain religion. “Through the sponsorship of Baptist and Methodist ministries, African Americans in slavery taught each other to understand the Bible in subversively liberatory ways” (355). Groups and people use sponsors so that they can do certain things. A sports group gets money from sponsors in order to fund their program. “Little leaguers who wear the logo of a local insurance agency on their uniforms, not out of concern for enhancing the agency’s image but as a means for getting to play ball, people throughout history have acquired literacy pragmatically under the banner of others causes” (335). My high school wrestling team had sponsors for each of the 14 weight classes. Companies/Businesses would pay to have a banner hung up in the gym. Therefore at any sporting event their banner was seen by many.