World Cup Dreams

Adverts

And there is another one jumping on the bandwagon. You know the tournament is approaching by what you see between each break. It starts with one or two and as the weeks go on nearly all the adverts are about football or use stereotypes from the host nation to sell their wares. This is supposed to be the greatest sport ever, the beautiful game, but it is now nothing more than a sellout.

Oh, look at this one, some people playing football then suddenly out of nowhere a car appears. A few seconds ago I didn't know it was a car advert. The links are just so tenuous. There's a man having a shave, oh it's a famous footballer, probably paid thousands for that, not that he needs the money.

You know, I bet these chief execs and marketing gurus know nothing about football. The way they shoehorn it in nowadays isn't even subtle. Show some football, here's my product and BANG, job done! I understand big tournaments sell and football is a global market but surely there should be some rules, some link between the product and the beautiful game, not just one star endorsing something or a few shots of a free kick then what you want to sell. But no, put a little football on something and then you can use the World Cup to your heart's content.

I can understand sportswear and sports equipment. They still use the competition as a marketing gimmick but at least it is related and will do some good if kids get active.

The worst though are those fast food adverts. It's hypocrisy, look at this amazing sport, right, good, now eat a burger! I can't wait till they sponsor individual players so they need to endorse the products on the pitch. Yeah they do that already with boots, but imagine if they did it with fast food. I can hear a player now, in an interview after the game, "sorry I didn't score, I was finishing my chicken nuggets and chips!" Or the commentators mentioning, "look he's being sick at the side of the pitch. He needs to eat three more burgers before ninety minutes or he doesn't gets his advertising money, let's hope his stomach can take it." Absolutely ridiculous.