On June 12th, 32 teams from around the world will compete for the ultimate prize in football, sending supporters in their respective countries into four weeks of hysteria. Everyone will experience dizzying highs and inevitable heartbreak, save for one nation. The football may not have started yet, but the World Cup competition is already well under way. With the 2010 final alone generating estimated viewing figures of at least 1 billion people, its no wonder these companies have been vying for your attention. Advertising agencies around the world have done some of their finest work in previous competitions. For World Cup 98, Ronaldo (the fat one) and the rest of the Brazil team amazed with their skills in airport. With that advert, Nike stuck its flag in the ground and brands have been battling for World Cup supremacy ever since. For all the many messages and deafening noise given off by these companies, it can be difficult to know exactly what they are trying to tell us. The following filters out the nonsense to discover lessons we can learn from the wise corporate machine...
8. Some Great Players Will Miss The World Cup
Nike has a history of great football adverts and this one lives up to that heritage. A game of "winner stays on" is transformed from gentle kick about to a thrilling match on a grand stage, featuring the worlds best players (and at one point, the Hulk). For the first 15 seconds, it looks like all the players are in their World Cup kits, until Zlatan Ibrahimovi turns up sporting his PSG colours. Its a reminder that the World Cup may be footballs biggest stage, but that doesnt mean all the worlds best players have been invited to the party. Sweden was beaten in the play-offs after a thrilling second-leg encounter with Portugal. We knew then that the competition would be robbed of one of the worlds best as the game boiled down to Ronaldo versus Ibrahimovi, with Team Ronaldo beating Team Zlatan 3-2. While this may be handy for Nike to show off their sponsorship at a club level, and means Innesta and Piqué dont have to wear a generic kit, it does remind us that the World Cup will be missing some of the stars of the game. Gareth Bale, Robert Lewandowksi, Petr Cech and Samir Nasri are among other fantastic talents to miss out, making the World Cup worse off for it.