June 16, 2010
Guerrilla Marketing
One of the more odious things about the World Cup is how the cameramen are instructed to zoom in on attractive women in the crowd. Even as a bit of a chauvinist I find this a bit pathetic. So I was quite pleased to find out after overdosing on rather luscious blondes in a largely forgettable Netherlands game that I had apparently become a victim of guerrilla marketing.
Again and again the cameras focussed in on a large group of overly enthusiastic blondes in skimpy orange dresses. Other than a simple illustration of how easy it is for a glamorous blonde to get on television at a football match, I thought nothing of it.
Then we were told the girls were promoting a brand of beer, so what? Well apparently there is only one beer allowed to be promoted at the World Cup – and that is Budweiser. So the girls were committing a crime apparently. And the BBC was enthusiastically taking part in this heinous crime.
Strangely, after embarrassing themselves with their peeping-tom camerawork, the BBC enthusiastically advertised the Dutch beer all over again the following morning. Even though everything was so obviously being orchestrated by a PR machine, we were told in mind-numbing detail what guerrilla marketing was, why it was so wrong – and rather helpfully what the Dutch beer brand was.
We were even told by a smug bloke in glasses that this was really clever marketing. Really? In which case the Sun must have been scooping an awful lot marketing prizes with their Page 3 girls in recent years.
The other thing that this curious story revealed was just how odious the link is between big business and big-time sporting events. Why on earth should only one beer be marketed at the World Cup? It IS in South Africa after all – and as Budweiser has very little in common with any beer that you and I might recognise, it probably has nothing whatsoever in common with what the local might want to slake their thirst with – or numb their disappointment.
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