Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Just kick it

While I normally don't like to shill for a multi-billion dollar company, this commercial is pretty good. Even if it is about soccer. Kidding. I recommend watching it in full-screen mode since blogger refuses to give me a wider space with which to work.



I especially like the divergent realities imagined by England's Wayne Rooney, especially the queen hug, and the appearance by America's favorite donut-loving father of the year. Who among you, I ask, is going to pay more than a shred of attention to the World Cup beginning this week in South Africa?
Just wondering.

During the last cup I was in Northern Ireland and, believe it or not, there was a great national shame when England lost (got their collective heads handed to them on platters). Even the Catholics were embarrassed and they, for the most part, ignore soccer and concentrate on hurling (the game not what happens after too much whiskey) and Gaelic football. That's how much it matters to most of the people around the world.

I'm not one of them, but I will keep track of how the U.S. is doing and I might even watch their opening match. Against England.

9 comments:

Liebchen said...

I love this commercial. And there's another one with Landon Donovan that's funny, too.

And I think you already know where I stand on whether or not I'll watch the games.

FoggyDew said...

I like how it tells not one, but a bunch of stories along the way. Haven't seen the Landon one yet. Oh, and Go Brazil! Kidding. Maybe.

Alice said...

my (soccer-playing) boyfriend showed me this commercial about a week ago - it's freaking great. i've watched it probably a dozen times since then :-)

magnolia said...

haha - love it.

i've never gotten down with soccer; the stoppage time thing alone just messes with my head. why can't they just, oh, i don't know, stop the clock? why can't they count it DOWN? why doesn't anyone seem to know exactly how much time is left? it seems shady.

ok, rant over. but the world cup in '06 was fun. i watched part of it in the sports book at the MGM grand in vegas with just thousands of people. it was really cool; there were national partisans with flags and everything.

hannah said...

I'm definitely getting into it here - it's different when you're overseas, like you said. Even when the Turkish team isn't in the world cup, it's still going to be madness here. Our first game is against the Brits on Saturday, and I MAY OR MAY NOT be planning to heckle the British expats here!

FoggyDew said...

Alice - It is a little piece of art, isn't it?

mags - maybe that's what we need here: more betting. Then we could all wave dollar-bill flags. The best part of stoppage time if I remember correctly (although this might only be a rugby rule) is that even when time runs out the game's still not over until there's a dead ball.

hannah - Wait until you see how the game's going. Reverse heckling is never any fun.

Sujong said...

Hey that was cool! I hadn't seen it yet. I liked the bracelets on the newborns all saying "Wayne" - hilarious!

FoggyDew said...

Sujong - Welcome! Yeah, that part was pretty funny. Although, after his game against the U.S. on Saturday, there may not be quite as many.

Sebastian Anthony said...

Northern Ireland is still fairly fond of England you know...! At least 50% are royalists, or something.

Anyway, thanks to my belated reading of this post, I can now say CONGRATULATIONS TO BOTH OF OUR COUNTRIES! Last 16, eh! Go us :)

Gonna go watch the ad now!