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“Super Bowl” in Danish

Monday, February 3rd, 2014

From the homepage of DR, Denmark’s state TV and radio broadcaster (which, even in Denmark, by no means exhausts the radio or even TV choices available there through the airwaves):

Be there: Super Bowl for beginners

One of the world’s biggest sporting events goes on this evening, when the Super Bowl is played. Get answers to your most important questions here.

But there is a particular line of inquiry about which DR feels visitors might be particularly interested. We’ll soon see just what that is below, but first:

Sports economists: Super Bowl is a gigantic advertisement-show

VIDEO: Super Bowl can set a record for cold

American football is created for the Americans.

Peyton Manning picked as the NFL’s best player.

Finally, here we go:

READ ALSO: Brain injuries are a threat for American football

READ ALSO: Why concussions are dangerous

Gee – mentioned at the end not once but twice! Bunch of wimps! American football was indeed made for Americans,* and not for these cheese-eating . . . er, foreign weaklings! At least the DR writers were astute enough to put forward the topic of advertisement much nearer the top, as that truly gets much closer to the essence of what the entire phenomenon is about.

* Which is not to say that the NFL is not doing it’s very best (e.g. multiple regular-season games played at London’s Wembley Stadium) to widen the pasttime’s appeal outside of North America.

Posted in Denmark | No Comments »

Of Illusionists and Hostage-Takers

Saturday, January 18th, 2014

Remember when beer was just beer? (No? OK, maybe you’re not old enough.)

Jesse Frederik of De Groene Amsterdammer does, though, although from the mini-vignette of him that we see at the top of the column to which the above tweet links he doesn’t seem to be that old himself.

Beer was not always a branded article. From surveys among retailers just after the Second World War [remember, this is written within a Dutch context], it was apparent that only ten percent of customers ever asked for a specific brand. Beer was beer, and nothing more!

Ah, but things eventually changed. “Brand consciousness arrived only when brewers realized that marketing, the selling of illusions, could show consumers differences where there weren’t any.” Beer from Heineken – the company which turned out to be most successful at this new game by far – became perceived as the social tipple, Amstel (a brand later purchased by Heineken) as the “people’s beer,” Hertog Jan as “chic.” Physically, though, they had only minor differences if any.

So what did we get? Lots more marketing expenses among brewers, and of course an explosion in Dutch beer consumption over the years – from ten liters per year in 1950 to 86 in 1980. “The glass of beer, once a brand-less product, comparable to sugar, became a great vehicle for solving all your problems.”

Except that we know it only sometimes seems to solve our problems, and then only for limited times, before the hangover sets in. (more…)

Posted in Netherlands | No Comments »

“Super Bowl” in Danish

Of Illusionists and Hostage-Takers

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