Oh How Times Have Changed - An Era When Any Tom, Dick or Tony Dorigo Could Be A Pin-Up

Whether your team is successful, struggling, or worse they’re Portsmouth, big bucks will have been spent in recent times crafting a slick and exciting media image of the club that Saachi & Saachi would be proud of.

Advertising sponsorship adorns team kits, programmes, tournaments, stands and even stadiums. Everywhere at a football ground you’re surrounded by companies attempting to flog you their stuff, be it on big screens or on the advertising hoardings surrounding the pitch.

The game hasn’t always been such a slick money making machine though. Within the last decade the style and energy of adverts by Nike and Addidas for example, has helped in the commercialisation of the game. Not so long ago though, beauties such as the ones above were the best companies could muster in an attempt to lure the boys into buying your teams new shirt and for some reason the hideously un-photogenic Steve Bruce and Dean Saunders were the pin-up boys of Mitre.

Oh how times have changed. No longer is a player nervously paraded in front of the nations press looking like something has been inserted into his backside just as the photo was taken, as seems to have happened to Bruce. Twice. There was no airbrushing, no wind machines, no fancy lighting, no exotic sets and no pretence. This is a footballer and he is being paid to wear Mitre clothing, but looks uncomfortable doing so.

Without a hint of style or glamour, Saunders sits proudly untouched by a make-up artist or Photoshop brush with a curly wig on his head. Can you believe that it only took one take to get this snap?

A million miles from the adverts of today which often are intended to reflect our aspirations and dreams, whether that be David Beckham and his trouser snake in Calvin Kline pants or the Brazilian team having an elaborate and highly skilful kick-about in an airport.

Nothing of the sort is present here. This is not intended as a slight on the sexual prowess of either Saunders or Bruce, as the former Villa forward is displaying an early and primitive attempt to bring sex into advertising with an evocative pose and Bruce is so excited he can’t take his hands out of his pockets.

To add a certain sense of spice to a tired convention and a hideous t-shirt, the hero of Torino, Tony Dorigo has drafted in an attractive blonde and displays the influence the hideous t-shirt has had over her to the public by comfortably and suggestively placing his hand on her left shoulder. Attitudes towards sex have changed drastically in the past few years, as this was considered quite racy in 1991.

At no point do any of the adverts attempt to project the ideals of the brand, the aspirations and dreams of its users or try to project a brand image beyond the boring day-to-day.

Grand and fantastical images are now shown in sports advertising as they desperately attempt to get themselves noticed in a marketplace panicked by the big R of recession. Hinting at greatness, adverts attempt to show you how to live out your personal dream, but within the confines of your every day life.

Therefore by the advertisers logic, if you buy Calvin Klein underwear, it will make you look like Beckham and give you the trappings of his uber celebrity lifestyle.

If you buy Nike footballs the ball will become your personal laser guide missile that when it leaves your foot it will nestle itself in the top corner every time. It is your new greatest weapon.

The idea of promoting the brand instead of the product is a relatively new idea, particularly so in the world of football advertising. Stereotypically football crowds consist of Neanderthal beings that enjoy spending their time shouting at 22 men kicking a ball around a park and so don’t have the capacity to digest an advert beyond the bloody simple.

This though was under 20 years ago and was hardly the dawn of time, despite the prevalence of shell suits. It was quite simply a more innocent time for the game, before the media saturation swallowed the game whole.

The Ronseal approach of doing exactly what is said on the tin had worked for years in the world of football advertising and getting any Tom, Dick or Tony Dorigo to model the shirt was good enough to entice people into buying some real crap.

Today the crap remains the same, but it now has a high gloss finish, as advertising in football progresses beyond the fanatical few and into mainstream culture.

The importance, power and influence of advertising was perfectly emphasised by a surprisingly concise comment from Villa manager Martin O’Neil, who told BBC Radio 5 Live in 2003 “there are those who play and those who pay.”

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Monday September 7, 2009.
Tags: Advertising, Tony Dorigo