India wins the Cricket World Cup and Rooney scores a treble against West Ham in EPL. I am no sport fanatic but I do like my football (soccer for some) and keep track of the score when India is playing cricket.P.S: keeping track is different from sitting through 100 overs assuming that each side fully consumes them. The latter demands almost a full day of viewership which means no time for other chores. The World Cup final last weekend was an exception to this rule. Yes, I am in France (those familiar would know about the pun intended here).
Whenever I watch these matches, what strikes me is the sponsorship boards around the pitch or behind the boundary line in case of cricket. With one of world’s biggest beer brands prominently showing at all UEFA Champion’s League matches with its distinguishable green colour, this would change depending on the league/division you’re watching. Talking of cricket where Indian stadiums flaunt famous whisky names from the top 2 companies ready to kill each other in the competition, one can expect to see more beer in Australian and South Africa grounds. The same is endorsed by fans that can be seen holding the plastic glasses filled with brewed barley water.
Overwhelmed by these observations, I scratch my head and begin to think if wine brands are as easy to spot in a similar setup as the above two categories of alcoholic beverages? While it might be a preferred drink by the Red Devils’ coach with one of Latin America's leading wine company being the team’s sponsor, it will certainly take a while for the game authorities to see sponsorship bids from wine companies interested in these sports. Is it about the big money that these games command?Considering the case with all major sporting events today, maybe yes. Or could it be a problem of being wrongly perceived? What if wine companies don’t want to be associated with games that do not convey the right message? Picture this: A young man without his shirt is screaming his lungs out to support the home team. The camera moves down and finds him holding a tall glass but alas, it has wine instead of beer. The imagery is probably one that would upset a marketer of a terroir driven wine company/brand but who knows, this might change anytime soon!
We’ll see what happens in the coming years but that won’t keep me away from celebrating our World Cup victory for the next few weeks! And FYI, they did open not one, but two different bubblies to mark the moment! Great going team India. Just tell me those brand names on the bottles! J
