If we have to look forward to more of this, I don't want the World Cup to come
2009-12-22 11:37:00
I understand that there's a lot of money involved in the World Cup. I understand that a lot of people are interested in the games. I recognize that this situation may lead to excess on the part of some people.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.
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