Worlds Apart

I have been in the Rio Grande Valley for the past few days, which has afforded me the luxury to catch a little Mexican television. I guess I forgot what it was like to live in a country that actually cares about the World Cup because I am amazed at the marketing tie-ins, publicity, the rapture that engulfs the audience in the build up toward the cup.

80% of the TV commercials have something to do with the world cup. Television shows, newspapers, etc have nonstop coverage. Even the novelas have some story lines that deal with the mundial. It is a never-ending onslaught. You have to be living in a cave in Mexico to have no idea that the world cup is starting, and I even have my doubts about that those people don’t know.

It’s nice that Disney has some pretty spots with U2 doing the VO, but 4 spots that run with 3 weeks to go is not enough. In the States, unless you are paying attention, the world cup is nothing more than an annoyance that happens every 4 years that takes 90 seconds away from hockey highlights on sportscenter.

Don’t get me wrong, it has gotten better in the good ol’ USA since the first world cup I watched here back in 1986. English coverage had ESPN with a few games during the week, with commercials, of course, and NBC had a few games on the weekend. In 1990, TNT picked up the cup, and since I lived in Philly, we did not get Univision, so we had to suffer through that. Now we have games without interruption, and maybe, just maybe, they will figure out to use the animation like Mexico and the rest of the world has done for years.

The US networks has come a long way to bring the footiephiles in this country a bigger taste of the sport they love, but watching TV from Mexico has made me realize just how uniterested the media giants think the general public in the US still is when it comes to soccer.