Cricket & Advertising don't mix (part II)

Following on from an earlier post, it seems like curse of advertising on our cricketers continues. KFC have been advertising their new 'it might be chicken' quite prominently throughout the Test series, with advertisements featuring the likes of:

• Mitchell Johnson (seems more occupied with showing off his underwear than with bowling well);
• Steve Smith (see earlier reference);
• Cameron White (recently dumped as T20 captain, though did score some handy club runs of late); and
• David Hussey (who should be on alert for injuries, falling pianos etc).

This trend of advertisers going with useless, washed-up or injured cricketers is really starting to make me wonder, why would they pick these players? Is KFCs advertising budget as cheap as their "food"? Or are they a bit smarter than the rest of us & are really appealing to the common man with common men?

Thought of the Day: Cricket & Advertising don't mix (part I)

Observe if you will the above packaging, witnessed last weekend at Coles, Northcote Plaza.

I was as surprised as you probably are, seeing that the worlds most identifiable brand is placing broken down or washed up cricketers on its product to help promote it. To elucidate:

• Steve Smith (far left): Has proven that, as a cricketer, he makes a fine trainer;
• Shane Watson: Brilliant cricketer when fit, which isn't now (or previously, or soon);
• Brett Lee: 400 years old and very, very weird;
• Doug Bollinger: Played some Test cricket until he couldn't be arsed and realised he made cash from being in ads pretending to still be a Test cricketer;
• Nathan Hauritz: Could have been placed in the ad out of sympathy, similar to the reason he was picked to play for Australia last (not this) summer; and
• Brad Haddin: Quite a good dropper of the ball, which is a unique skill for someone who still plays and practices the game.

So, is this another example of the curse of advertisers on cricketers, greater support of the theory that Cricket Australia doesn't know how to market itself, or perhaps a combination of the two?

Thought of the Day: Is it just me, or does David Hussey look like the 'Stick Cricket' guy?

Stick Cricket Guy:


courtesy of stickcricket.com


David Hussey:



courtesy of heraldsun.com.au

Sign of the Times - App developers are ignoring the stay-at-home red neck market

Sign of the Times - you cant get much clearer direction than this

Thought of the Day: Cricket management (and marketing) is in the toilet (part I)

While following day 3 of the Boxing Day test between India and Australia on my beloved Cricinfo (you may also love it, but she is truly mine), I happened to notice the advertisements in the bottom right of the screen - see example below.



While I completely understand that advertising money transfer services to the Indian-Australian cricket following public makes sense, given the number of Indians in Australia who send money home & the number of Indians that follow cricket (approximately all of them), Im really unsure why advertising a Christmas catalogue 2 days after Christmas is a good idea or why cricket followers would be interested in health insurance.

Surely just another example of cricket struggling to manage and market itself effectively?

Question of the day: What is Nathan Lyon so surprised about?

Is it that David Warner was forced to stand in the back row, or that he doesn't have eyes?

Photo courtesy of Cricinfo / Getty Images