Sponsor-Free World Cup Party
Sponsor-Free World Cup Party
Trebgast, a small town in Germany, generated quite a lot of news when it decided to host a sponsor-free World Cup party. As reported in the International Herald Tribune, what began as a joke became taken as an anti-FIFA provocation (FIFA is the Zurich-based sports federation in charge of the world cup in Germany).
I have not yet met one German who is happy about the World Cup taking place in their country since my arrival or who has tickets. As one of the son’s of my brother-in-law said, “It’s all about advertising,” and gave me the advertising insert that arrived that day in the local paper, Rems-Zeitung. This insert is similar to those that arrive with your typical local American paper. There are ads from a variety of stores similar to Kmart, Walmart, or Target. Every page had soccer balls on them, there were many ads for clothing with the World Cup insignia, or the symbols of different teams from around the world, and there was all kind of paraphernalia for sale with soccer balls inscribed on them.
Advertising for the World Cup is all over the place. This is to be expected given the popularity of soccer and the millions of people expected to visit Germany during the games. Yet, it gives credence to the criticism that the event is all about marketing and that sportsmanship is no longer of importance. The event does not also seem to celebrate the country but instead celebrates marketing. I guess this is similar to most world sporting events and has been for a long time.
Other people are distressed by the fact that their lives will be completely disrupted when the games take place in their cities. There will be thousands of people milling about, making it difficult to commute to work, for instance, or travel anywhere. Even though the games will only take place over one month, people are quite distressed about it.
Trebgast, a small town in Germany, generated quite a lot of news when it decided to host a sponsor-free World Cup party. As reported in the International Herald Tribune, what began as a joke became taken as an anti-FIFA provocation (FIFA is the Zurich-based sports federation in charge of the world cup in Germany).
I have not yet met one German who is happy about the World Cup taking place in their country since my arrival or who has tickets. As one of the son’s of my brother-in-law said, “It’s all about advertising,” and gave me the advertising insert that arrived that day in the local paper, Rems-Zeitung. This insert is similar to those that arrive with your typical local American paper. There are ads from a variety of stores similar to Kmart, Walmart, or Target. Every page had soccer balls on them, there were many ads for clothing with the World Cup insignia, or the symbols of different teams from around the world, and there was all kind of paraphernalia for sale with soccer balls inscribed on them.
Advertising for the World Cup is all over the place. This is to be expected given the popularity of soccer and the millions of people expected to visit Germany during the games. Yet, it gives credence to the criticism that the event is all about marketing and that sportsmanship is no longer of importance. The event does not also seem to celebrate the country but instead celebrates marketing. I guess this is similar to most world sporting events and has been for a long time.
Other people are distressed by the fact that their lives will be completely disrupted when the games take place in their cities. There will be thousands of people milling about, making it difficult to commute to work, for instance, or travel anywhere. Even though the games will only take place over one month, people are quite distressed about it.
posted by paulmediaeye at 1:50 AM
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