Coca-Cola : More Sponsor Silliness

That bastian of American corporate culture, Coca-Cola are launching a bunch of ridiculous promotions ahead of the 2010 World Cup Finals.

My personal favourite, though, has to be the limited edition Coca Cola cans featuring, and I think you're gonna like this, members of the France football squad.

Like who, you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked that because among others, there's Franck Ribery, Sidney Govou and Karim Benzema, all of whom are under investigation for allegedly sleeping with an underage prostitute.

Even worse is the Coke World Cup Trophy tour, whereby a huge international corporation gets to co-opt the world's most famous sports trophy in order to sell more teeth rotting fizzy drinks. Fantastic. FIFA: I hope you're proud of yourselves.

Words Fail Me

File this under 'stupid World Cup promotions....part 1,237'. Words simply faily me when I attempt to sum up my feelings on Walkers Crisps 'Flavour Cup' promotion. In fact, because I first read about it in Charlie Brooker's column, I figured it was satire.

But no. It's real. Walkers have released 15 new crisp flavours, tied in with 15 football teams. Some of these teams - not so notably, Scotland and Wales - didn't even qualify for the World Cup Finals.

And some of the choices of flavours : Australian BBQ Kangaroo, anyone? French garlic Baguette. Honestly, someone put these people out of their misery. It's just embarrassing.

Big Brother Is Watching You!

Regular readers of this blog might know that I like to mock the whole corporate sponsorship culture that surrounds the World Cup Finals.

Personally, I don't really care that an Indian IT company wants to pay £32 million to be a World Cup 'sponsor'. It's their money; they can piss it up against whichever wall they choose. And, before the World Cup 2010 starts, I will be mocking the whole concept of a football event even needing an 'IT sponsor'.

But, I disgress.

What I do find egregious (look it up) is the way in which FIFA is seeking to maximise their income by turning the screws on smaller businesses who wish to promote themselves during World Cup year.

This document suggests that FIFA will sue you if you use the phrase '2010' in relation to the words 'soccer' or 'football' if you are not an official sponsor, partner or whatever other category of money-making nonsense they have come up with.

There is even the suggestion that FIFA hold the rights to all billboard advertising within a 5km radius of any World Cup stadium.

This is the kind of crass commercialisation that I, personally, find sickening. Especially as it restricts the opportunities for local (and by that, I meant South African) businesses to compete.

I remember when the World Cup was about football, not about money.