World Cup 2010 Blog: “Podcast: World Cup 2010 Group B Preview. “You hear that, Mr. Anderson?”” plus 1 more |  |
| Podcast: World Cup 2010 Group B Preview. “You hear that, Mr. Anderson?” Posted: 19 Mar 2010 10:40 AM PDT
Allow me to introduce the second of the Total Football Soccer Show's World Cup 2010 previews, broadcast yesterday on Richmond Independent Radio and now available as a podcast. For our preview of Group B (Argentina, Greece, South Korea, Nigeria) we’re sticking with last week’s highly scientific system for predicting which teams will advance, awarding points based on best team nickname and so on. To listen to the show and find out a) which two teams make it, and b) what Agent Smith from The Matrix has to do with any of this, simply click here to open the mp3 file. If you like what you hear, you can also subscribe to the show via iTunes for the very reasonable cost of free.
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| FIFA Has $1 Billion in Reserve Funds, But Still Doesn’t Appreciate Clever Advertising Posted: 19 Mar 2010 08:53 AM PDT
The first story is that FIFA made a profit of $196 million in 2009, and now has a reserve cash fund of more than $1 billion. One billion dollars in the vault. Which makes FIFA sound a little like a Bond villain. The second story is that FIFA have come down hard on South African budget airline kulula.com for what FIFA calls “ambush marketing”. Basically, Kulula isn’t an official World Cup sponsor, and as such is not allowed to suggest otherwise. Which makes perfect sense. However, Kulula – famous for its slightly left-field advertising campaigns – recently ran an ad in the South African Sunday Times newspaper on February 28th stating the airline was the “Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What”. First of all, can I assume I’m not alone in finding that ad absolutely hilarious? Rather than straightforward trying to cash in on the World Cup in a cheap and nasty way, Kulula have instead made a clever and defiant gag at the expense of FIFA’s heavyhanded copyright and licensing laws. (Licensing laws that we here at World Cup Blog (soon to be renamed the You-Know-What Blog?) are already familiar with.) FIFA didn’t find it so funny. They objected not just to the slogan, but to the fact that the ads featured stadiums, vuvuzelas and the South African national flag – none of which FIFA actually owns, last time anyone checked – and have forced Kulula to cease and desist with the ads.
Unfortunately, Kulula don’t have much choice but to do as FIFA asks. But now comes the clever bit. Hands up if you’d ever heard of Kulula.com before this story broke all over the internet? Me neither, but I’ve just typed the company name exactly eight times in the course of this post, and now have a new favourite South African domestic budget airline, should I ever need one. FIFA may have all the money, but I suspect someone at the Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What is getting a hearty pat on the back today for a perfectly executed marketing campaign.
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World Cup previews. They can be a bit dull and not particularly helfpul when it comes to predicting who will qualify from each group. One reason for this is that they focus too much on things like players and not enough on the really good things. Like quality of national anthem, team nickname and potential celebrity spokesperson. Until now.
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