Department of WTF, has the world gone mad?

[snorkackcatcher]

The new World Cup rule: take off your trousers, they're offending our sponsor

Comments

[green-kiwigirl.livejournal.com]

Ha! That is terribly amusing and very, very strange. (And someone needs to make an icon with "Department of WTF" on it, :D)

[jesspallas.livejournal.com]

Oh, in the name of pity, that's just ridiculous!

[snorkackcatcher]

That's a thought. I'll see what I can do with Paint Shop Pro. :)

[snorkackcatcher]

Likely to become commoner though, given the excessive reverence for branding and other such things these days (well, until somebody goes too far and they get sued). Commercial Interests 1, Common Sense 0.

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is ... um, yes, "bizarre" hardly seems to cover it.

And Dutch boys are hot, too. Maybe I should take up watching soccer.

[quivo.livejournal.com]

*goggles* O rly? On one hand, it sort of makes sense - if you spent 50 million on the World Cup, you damn well want your product up there, and not someone else's. Then again, there's only a certain amount of micromanaging the event people can do before it gets ridiculous. For fuck's sake, if someone made me take off my trousers because of sponsorship bullshit, someone would be getting sued, pronto. Fans pay through their noses to get their hands on those tickets, for crying out loud - it stands to reason that they get to watch the game however the crap they like.

[tree_and_leaf]

Crazy. Totally crazy.

It's not even sensible, as the trousers probably wouldn't have been that visible on TV. The publicity from justifiably pissed-off fans, however....

[snorkackcatcher]

Well, their team all claim to be ... well-equipped, too. (Not to mention that the orgies congratulatory group hugs after goals are scored would probably make a slasher's day ... :D)

[snorkackcatcher]

Common sense and branding are not always synonymous ...

[snorkackcatcher]

I suppose the next step would be for fans to wear the logos on their underwear as well and say 'go on, I dare you'. And as tree_and_leaf said below, it's not like you could actually see the logos on TV anyway ...

[quivo.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Perhaps the only way the true ridiculousness of this would be revealed if a man or woman wearing logo-ed underwear as well as logo-ed pants and shirt was turned back because they'd have to be stripped naked to be allowed entrance to the game...which they, curiously enough, happened to pay for. Hello, class action suit ;)

[snorkackcatcher]

I suppose the sponsors could respond by insisting on writing small print into the conditions of issue that allowed ticket holders to be refused entry yada yada ... Presumably though it would eventually dawn on someone that the negative PR wasn't worth the bother!

[quivo.livejournal.com]

The small print thing probably wouldn't even go through, actually - national football federations would go mad with holy rage as soon as they find out it's in the pipeline, and protest till the cows came home. I can't imagine any football fan or fan company agreeing to buy tickets with those kinds of stupid terms on them in the first place, and the first company to demand such terms outright in fine print would probably get smacked with the negative publicity and protests left right and center.

[snorkackcatcher]

True. It's one of those situations where you can't quite believe anyone was blinkered enough to actually set it up as a policy.

[quivo.livejournal.com]

Certainly. Firms can be so stupid sometimes - I know I wouldn't want to wait until public opinion was as inflamed as it is in this case to change my policy. And, for goodness' sake, you'd think the firms would know of another smarter way to hurt the competition - what stopped that beer company sponsor, for example, from releasing their own orange trousers? And what stops Pepsi or whoever from ensuring that free or low cost drinks are given out as alternatives during the game if they're so concerned about what everyone there is drinking? Someone in those two firms needs to get the boot for not actively thinking about such pertinent issues, I think.

[tree_and_leaf]

How true...

[snorkackcatcher]

Well that's what you or I or any other person concerned with practicality would do. Maybe we should apply for their jobs. I'd take 100K a year. :)

[quivo.livejournal.com]

And then you have these kinds of people complaining when Microsoft is sitting pretty on their market share. Microsoft has long been willing to go both routes (i.e. the practical and shady) of eliminating competition - unless firms add the practical, supposedly stand-up methods of doing that to their arsenals, they'll continue to have problems with keeping hold of their market share.

And I'd probably apply in a frigging heartbeat, too ;)

[maple-clef.livejournal.com]

Oh dear!

*seconds call for "Department of WTF" icon*

[snorkackcatcher]

I just need a good picture to go with it ... :)