How Advertising Ruined the World Cup

No major sports tournament is complete without unforgettable advertising. As the World Cup occurs every four years it is inevitable that advertisers will want to surpass their efforts from previous tournaments and World Cup 2010 is no exception.

Kehinde Wiley partnered up with PUMA to create a jersey for the teams and create a piece of art that depicted Samuel Eto’o, Emmanuel Eboue and John Mensah standing in unity. The artwork is phenomenal and this partnership arguably kicked off the 2010 World Cup love marks campaigns.

After the PUMA launch other advertisers began to release their contributions to the World Cup build up but none had the impact of the ‘Write the Future’ Nike ad... Ribéry, Cannavaro, Rooney, Drogba, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kobe Bryant and Roger Federer. The advert is literally and figuratively iconic.

But could it have jinxed the very stars it featured?

Eto’o has been on the receiving end of criticism from Roger Milla
John Mensah is nowhere to be seen
Ribéry plays for France so there isn’t much that he can do now anyway
Cannavaro has had better matches
Rooney’s contribution has been insipid
Drogba is nursing a dodgy elbow
Ronaldinho didn’t make the cut
Ronaldo’s performance can be described as lacklustre at best

The only person that seems to have escaped the advertising jinx is Kobe Bryant.

I don’t want to see any British athletes featured in advertising in the run up to the 2012 Olympics.