Drew, I am a sponsor and always appreciate great comments from people who are on our pro staff and from folks who just love to use our products!!! While we do have some expectations from our pro staff to "promote" our product, we hopefully wish to see some good judgement used by these folks.
When we select our pro staff we are looking not only at folks who have a good fishing resume, but who also have a good business sense and reputation within the community.
It seems that lately, some folks seem to think that they can't even go take a dump without mentioning the fact they took a certain brand rod/lure with them. It's like " I couldn't have done this without my XXX rod"
Some of these Product Ho's have ruined it as of late for many who are sponsored by a company/product and want to do a good job for their sponsors.