the marketing of meaning - The Run of Play

A Maiden Is Sacrificed, a Football Kit Is Born

I’ve never really understood the hoopla that surrounds the unveiling of new football kits. However, now that I’ve seen this new kit-unveiling video from Bayern Munich, I can honestly say that I understand it far, far less.
Try to make yourself watch the whole thing. You’ll think you have the point by around the :50 mark, [...]

in bayern munich, the marketing of meaning

Disabled Asian Girls Aged 5-15, Show Us the Way

I don’t know how it works, physically, when the FA unveils a new plan. Is there an actual thunderclap, or just a guy standing in the wings rolling a 50p coin on a timpani? I’d like to imagine that the whole thing starts with Brian Barwick driving across a stage in a tiny [...]

in england, the marketing of meaning

You, Too, Can Own a Little Piece of Tragedy

You might have been worried, after the touching memorial to the victims of the 1958 Munich air crash at the Manchester derby yesterday, that the open market would never offer you, the wealthy obsessive, the chance to buy macabre memorabilia of the disaster online. After all, human sentiments being the inconvenient sticky things they [...]

in manchester united, the marketing of meaning

The Most Romantic Cash Register in Europe

Roswitha at Treasons, Stratagems & Spoils has written a really smart post contrasting Barcelona and Milan, looking at each club not just as a collection of players but as a set of accumulated cultural meanings which each club tries to manage and market. It’s a fruitful comparison and teases out a lot of subtle [...]

in barcelona, milan, the marketing of meaning