Cars playing football and other promotional stunts
With the World Cup fever reaching extreme temperatures, it seems that inanimate objects also decided to play the game as well. Quite recently, four Smart cars decided to play a game of football with each other. It was organised as a unique car football event. Other promotional stunts have taken place in regards to mega sports events; some turn out as nice while others go horribly wrong. People have been using promotional stunts to highlight events for many years and the trend will continue as marketing and PR grows and expands in the coming years.
This latest incident of cars playing football was a publicity stunt to launch the new Mercedes Benz World facility. The company thought they could tap into the huge popularity of the World Cup and football in general and use it to promote their new Smart cars. They thought it would be a fun idea to paint two of the cars in England colours while and make them play bumper to bumper in this case. There was a huge ball in the middle of the pitch and the referee was equipped with huge red and yellow cards. Two five-minute halves were played with a penalty shootout at the end. The stunt was organised in order to show off the handling capabilities of small cars in order to attract attention by using football as the 'vehicle', excuse the pun, to deliver the message to the end consumers.
This was not the first time cars were used to play football against each other. The BBC show Top Gear tested the handling capabilities of the tiny Toyota Aygo car by having a few of them involved in a football match. The point was to see how well the cars turned and how well they handled the overall drill. The entire event was very interesting and funny and they were able to prove a point about a very nimble little car.
Another odd promotional stunt involving football was one that bordered on animal cruelty. In it, little penguins at an amusement park in South Korea were dressed up in South Korean team jerseys and were made to play miniature football on a miniature pitch. The played the game to the delight of children and other onlookers. The reason why they did it was to tap into the huge support that was evident for the Korean national team and they felt if they could get even a small percentage of that popularity, they could promote their amusement park. The poor penguins that were firstly removed from their natural habitat were then unnaturally dressed in clothes and made to play a football game. The car promotional stunt is better than this cruel one because at least the cars are controlled by humans and they aren't alive. These poor birds are rather cruelly made to perform for the benefit for onlookers.
Humans sometimes do daft promotional activities as well and often they are backed by large companies. In 2002, during Tri-Nations rugby match between New Zealand and Australia two men ran out onto the field naked except with the Vodafone logo painted on their bodies. "The two offenders were arrested just before the game ended, and the CEO of Vodafone was forced to issue an apology for encouraging the streakers”. The CEO probably didn't realise that children watch rugby too and they really don't need to watch naked men running around on a pitch.
The fact that promotional stunts are used so often gives us a clue about their popularity. The companies that use them try to tap into the popularity of other event to try and promote whatever product or service they are selling. Sometimes it works well like in the Smart car example and sometimes it doesn't work well at all like in the penguin and streaking examples. Companies need to be very careful in what they do as a promotional stunt and should think long and hard about the impacts of the stunt and whether it will go down well with all those watching.
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