ESPNews Sponsorships

While watching the NBA and NHL playoffs this past weekend on ESPN there were many different sponsors for ESPN.  Most of the sponsors would attract the attention of middle aged men.  This makes sense since most of the audience of ESPN would be middle aged men watching sports.  Bud Lite was a big sponsor that would come up often throughout the games during commercials.  A lot of these commercials were also brought back with a large advertisement on the screen showing the bud lite symbol.  The marketing of beer during sporting events makes a lot of sense to me since a lot of guys will drink beer while watching the games on TV.  Do you think these advertisements actually effect sales of beer companies or would they still sell the same amount of beer regardless?