Red Dead Redemption by Terry

The following article is pretty unrelated to sports marketing, but at the same time, I suppose you could link it to the PR aspect of the sports industry. Either way, I am going to comment on it.

I am not a fan of John Terry. I do not like his attitude. I do not like his behaviour on or off the pitch. I do not like the way he conducts himself in front of the media. However, today John Terry has won my admiration.

Following his outrageous antics off the field, and to a certain extent, his thuggish behaviour on it, I am always one to call him childish names. In fact, I can honestly say that before today, I wouldn’t have been intimidated in meeting him due to my lack of respect for him.

Yet in the most frank, un-media trained conference I have ever witnessed, I saw a player who was not only hurt by the poor performances he and the team have shown so far, but also a player that has the cojones to put his England career on the line to show he cares. Media reactions to the conference have been hilarious, such frank interviews are a rarity, and the mainstream media were unsure how to report the bluntness of Terry’s comments. Some called it a rash interview, others praised his honesty. My opinion is he did what he had to do; tell the truth.

Players left the field on Friday giving the same media trained lines fed to the media every week, with exception of Rooney, who quickly fell back in line with a public apology fed into the usual channels. In a break from ranks, Terry made the call to break away from the traditional feeds given to the media, and show that he has the pride and passion we thought had left the squad.

Now don’t get me wrong, I still can’t stand the guy, but as a professional footballer, he has gained my respect. Regardless of the outcome on Wednesday, he will have my backing.

Missed Opportunity for Hyundai After ITV World Cup Blunder

With fans already heavily critical of this World Cup, you’d think that broadcasters would do all they can to ensure fan satisfaction. At ITV, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Unsatisfied with continuing with possibly the worst commentary team in the history of football, and the most boring line up of pundits known to man, ITV made yet another braodcast error on their HD channel, very similar to the one against Everton in February 2009. Whilst understandable that mistakes can happen, ITV have broken a cardinal rule of sports broadcasting, never make the same mistake.

General opinions amongst fans I was with was a combination between anger and amusement. I began towards the latter end of the scale, but as Hyundai filled a substancial England football void, my attiude rallied towards the former option, compounded by the missing of a goal in what was otherwise a thoroughly dull match.

Adrian Chiles apologised at half time, but it was of little use, as commentary had been replaced by music for the half time break and many fans restocking their beer glasses at the bar. ITV produced their usual tact of “it isn’t our fault, it was someone elses” (some things never change).For those of you that haven’t seen it, see the error below.



What was most surprising was the little response from Hyundai. Now I can be pessimistic at the best of times, yet I willnot allow myself to believe that they paid to have the advert placed then, particularly with the 4 second delay in broadcast times. Yet the extra coverage they have had because of the blunder has been extraordinary. AS far as I am aware, nothing has been said, or issued to the media. If it has, it hasn’t been picked up on.

Within minutes of the error, puns were appearing online: “Toyota may not be able to supply working brakes, but we’d never interrupt your football” was a particular favourite of mine.

However, as far as I am aware, Hyundai haven’t attempted to spin this in their favour. Admittedly a tricky task given the result, but it is do-able. No apology was issued, no attempt at connecting with the fans after the error, which for me would not only have been a way of apologising for their part of the mistake, but also attempted to diffuse the anger aimed in their direction. Whether it is done through a viral apology, or a rushed print ad; adding a bit of humour would have lightened the mood.

A “we don’t do broadcasting, but if we did, we wouldn’t interrupt your football” type of campaign would not only keep the event being talked about, it would show a bit of realisation that a mistake was made.