However, what we decidedly do not need is a fake heavy metal band called "The Group of Death" created by ESPN and their brain damaged ad agency Wieden+Kennedy:
In anticipation of the 2010 World Cup draw this Friday, we’ve worked with ESPN to put together a fun little thing for football (soccer) fans…
We’ve created a heavy metal band called The Group of Death.
Inspired by the most hardcore group of the World Cup draw every four years and with the goal of entertaining football fans across the world.
If they were hoping for that shit to go viral, well, I found a whole single post referencing the band on BigSoccer, so that worked out pretty well, didn't it? On the other hand they did get about 650 Facebook fans. A google search reveals about 5-10 astroturfed blog posts and marketing guys talking about what a great concept it is.
Where does all this lead? Ultimately I don’t know if people who have no interest in soccer are going to start tuning in. But what it does do, it puts phrases like Group of Death on the table in this country. The next time your new business team is pitching against three arch rivals – it’s the Group of Death. When some reality show gets down to the final four contestants – it’s the Group of Death. When the U.S., as a culture, becomes comfortable with the language and traditions of global soccer, rather than trying to create our own ersatz version, then we’ll start to truly embrace the sport.
Hey, you just used the word soccer, how about that. Other than that, you're a douchebag. Actually, my favorite is The Gaffer's unboxing of the Group of Death promotional package he got from ESPN. For the first five minutes he's trying to figure out what exactly the promotional packet is, and it's only at the 5:05 mark that he unconvincingly says, "Well I guess it's an actual band." He then spends a couple minutes explaining to the viewers why ESPN would do such a thing, putting on as brave a face as possible. I do wonder what he was thinking, though.
Meanwhile, MLS Insider is pimping the "band's" "Rockumentary" after having originally referred to the band very vaguely as an "intriguing marketing stunt" despite knowing damn well who was behind the band. Go to the first link in this paragraph and watch the video - it is so bad, it's not even ironically bad. Not Michael Jackson "Bad." Just bad. It actually reminds me of the Microsoft Windows 7 Launch Party video.
MLS Insider, I gave you guys a chance, right? And now your blog is looking like fail (ok, so you did actually have an exclusive announcement yesterday. Yay!). Get it together, please, and stop pushing fake, bad bands on the rest of us like it's something hot and new.
For those who want to experience a real sports-obsessed, brilliantly marketed band that's not the sucky invention of an ad agency, start with the Dead Schembechlers:
The amount of press and attention was off the scale. The official web site shut down and crashed after receiving over 100 million hits during Hate Week alone. All of this is due directly to the support of Dead Schembechlers fans around the globe. We shit you not. We have no press person, no ad agency, no web master, no record company execs, no nuthin. This is as D.I.Y. as it fucking gets. We only have you. You did this all. So we thank you. We'll update this area with links soon.
If you know of similarly awesome bands out there, please post in the comments.
Fake Sigi out.
16 comments:
Sigi, I disagree with you about this one. If you were ESPN's advertising agency, what would you do to promote ESPN's coverage of World Cup 2010?
I feel Wieden+Kennedy have done an excellent job in creating something which may turn out to be very viral and definitely tongue in cheek. Humor goes a long way and is definitely more appealing than a typical boring press release.
Personally, I give hats off to Wieden+Kennedy for creating a remarkable campaign.
And, oh god, you're going to love/hate my piece tomorrow morning about The Group Of Death which will appear on http://www.epltalk.com
Cheers,
The Gaffer
I'll look forward to your piece. I don't think you took it this way, but I want to be clear that I don't have an issue with you the post you already made.
A large part of my issue with this band is the execution. It's not always clear that the band is fake, the mocumentary isn't all that funny, (soccer nets on my arms to think about protecting the band? What does that even mean?) the parts of the songs I've heard are just bad.
I have no problem with joke bands - Wayne and Garth, Beatalica, the Schembechlers are all great in their own ways - but there's nothing about this one that's remotely compelling.
-FS
All I have to say is, "what the hell does this have to do with soccer?" Why not just market the tournament as the showcase competition for a really great sport?
Is this why I die a little every time I hear the words "marketing concept"?
Well, you know how I feel about The Mars Volta.
As far as the Group of Death is concerned...
"In the Group of Death, you have to retire when it becomes obvious that you can no longer shred. We call it getting Black Carded. Once you get that Black Card, you’re out."
Sigh.
I was at plenty of promotional events during MLS Cup weekend, and it was a common sight to see entire boxes of those terrible shirts gathering dust.
I have a distinct memory of this poor girl in a Sounders jersey trying desperately to hand out Group of Death shirts to fans that had no interest in wearing them.
Now, the shirts of a Pike Place Fish Market worker chucking the MLS Cup trophy...those were clever. And not surprisingly, tough to find.
Sigi, no offense taken at all.
Personally I think anything that can be done to promote the sport is a thumbs up in my opinion. And I love Spinal Tap. So, for me, this is the best of both worlds.
Is it the best marketing concept ever created for soccer fans? No. But I appreciate the energy that the agency and ESPN are putting in to make people aware of the World Cup coverage.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Richard makes an excellent point.
And Mike's observations are certainly consistent with my own thoughts.
While making an effort is good, I think we're past the point that we should look beyond flaws just because they tried.
-FS
And here is the latest example of Sigi NOT shitting on other bloggers.
I'm starting to see what you mean Sigi. You offer so much more than just shitting on other bloggers.
You shit on ESPN a lot too.
I shit on ESPN a lot? That's what you call this post, my dislike of the World Cup bid video, some mild Elizabeth Lambert criticism, and a couple links about their ridiculous Ben Roethlisberger non-coverage? You'll have to do better than that.
And if you're just going to keep repeating the same inaccurate meme in the comments, explain to me why I shouldn't start deleting those comments? I've got no problem with anonymous commenters as they can be a lot of fun, but if you're not even going to try, then I see little reason to continue to give you the credit of an honest response.
-FS
Heavy metal and football just don't mix. I hate the way Sports Center treats us to a background wail of screeching guitars as they run through the sporting highlights of the day. I can just about live with this when Gridiron is the sport being discussed, but on a recent visit to Asia, they were using the same cod-Bon Jovi caterwaul as a backcloth to Premier League and World Cup action. At least the BBC tends to use music cleverly.
I'll stop repeating 'inaccurate meme's' when you stop leading off every post with a link and a side order of slander.
#1 - When you learn what slander is, get back to me.
#2 - I'd love to know what you think is slanderous in this post.
#3 - I suspect I know who you are. As such, your comments are most entertaining.
#4 - You can expect to have future comments along the same lines deleted. I've been more than fair, but I'm not going to tolerate trolls. You've been warned.
-FS
I doubt you know who I am but I totally understand your need to delete troll comments.
Afterall, trolls don't like other trolls coming around their bridge.
Adios.
Oh, and I looked up slander for you. You can review its meaning for future reference.
I think you'll find a good portion of your commentary falls under this definition.
In law, defamation—also called calumny, vilification, slander (for spoken words), and libel (for written or otherwise published words)—is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government or nation a negative image. It is usually, but not always, a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).
If you think I'm trolling here, that's your prerogative, but it shows a pretty big misunderstanding of what this blog is about.
As for slander, which part of this blog is spoken word?
And if you're talking about libel, be specific and provide examples which could reasonably survive a legal challenge. Don't forget about the overall context of this blog and all the widely recognized defenses, either.
Better yet, e-mail me your examples and we can discuss it further. I really have no interest in applying legal tests to the claims of trolls in the comments.
-FS
Hi Fake Sigi, I know I'm late to the post (was on vacation). But just saw that I'm the brain-damaged ad agency poster you linked to so figured I'd pop by and say hi. I'm sorry you didn't like the idea or the execution of it. I won't try to change your mind. Just for some added context, this is just a small piece, a very small piece of our overall promotion of the World Cup. It was not intended to sell football/soccer to the average American sports fan. It was created off a brief to do something (hopefully) fun, interesting and authentic to the sport/event around The Draw. To complement the more tangible/important things ESPN is doing (adding Martin Tyler, being on site in SA for SportsCenter, etc.) to improve their coverage from '06. Rather than "hype" tune-in to the draw coverage or start promotions in May when clearly the 2010 World Cup has been on football fans minds since '06 ended. So this may have missed the mark with some fans creatively - it was polarizing even within ESPN - but it was a chance to try something new and have discussions like these. I'm confident you'll feel differently about the stuff we've got coming as we approach the tourney - it does the beautiful game and the true stakes/drama/competition of the World Cup. Feel free to contact me for any other info - or a t-shirt :) All the best.
El Gaffney,
Sorry for the late response to this. I'll be making a post on this later today.
I'm sure the band was quite polarizing in ESPN. I can very much see why that was the case.
And while you're here, were you guys the ones responsible for the ESPN commercial for the World Cup that has maybe one discernible USA player in it? Because that kind of sucks too.
-FS
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