World Cup News Flash: We're Going to Eat Like Pigs

According to Nielsen, the World Cup triggers increased ad spending and food consumption. In other words, by July 11th we'll all be fatties. Or at least they will be in Indonesia, where this data comes from:

Stephen Mitchell, Managing Director for Consumers at Nielsen Indonesia, a subsidiary of Nielsen Company, a global information and media company, told a press conference that manufacturers will see the event as an opportunity to push more sales.

"Besides, advertisement spending will also see growth during June as World Cup sponsors are geared to air their commercials," said Mitchell.

In Indonesia, he said, Nielsen's data shows that sales of World Cup products categories during the event weeks of June 5 to July 9, 2006 increased 31 percent to reach 67 billion rupiah (about 7.2 million U.S. dollars) compared to the same period of 2005.

Meanwhile, he said, categories like snack, soft drink, peanuts, cigarettes, and energy drink are also expected to enjoy more sales.

"In the period of World Cup 2006, peanuts experienced the highest growth with 72 percent, followed by cigarettes (37 percent), energy drink (35 percent), snack (28 percent) and soft drink (19 percent)," said Mitchell.

WOAH, peanuts - way to be number one!



(Courtesy of People's Daily Online)

Steak Billboard Smells...Like Steak

This billboard in North Carolina is promoting a grocery store's new brand of beef.

Seems pretty innocuous, right? Big fork, yummy-looking steak, catchy tagline...

Well, not only does the beef on this sign look delicious, but from 7-10am and 4-7pm, it smells delicious, too. This billboard pumps out the smell of steak during rush hour, because I'm sure the combo of auto exhaust and sizzling beef is mouth-watering to passing motorists.

I guess if you can dream it, you can do it.

(Courtesy of Geekologie.com)

It Only Takes 90 Minutes For Your World to Change...

Plus injury time, of course.

As an MLS supporter since the league's inception, I feel it necessary to mention American soccer whenever I get the chance.

MLS is doing the smart thing this time around and stopping league matches for the first two weeks of World Cup action. Making people choose between the league games and world-class international matches is kind of silly. Only the die-hard fans will split their time between both - most casual fans are going to go for the big ticket tournament games. This way everyone wins.

Anyway, to capitalize on this league-wide pause for the the Cup, MLS has a new commercial on-air that I thoroughly enjoy and felt the need to share.

Watch the new commercial! Support the beautiful game in the USA! Watch the World Cup!



(Courtesy of adage.com)