Unforgettable Marketing Stunt in Football: Showmax’s Viral Video

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I recognise that this blog has been a bit football heavy of late, but despite the current disorganised mess at Bramall Lane, I’m still quite enjoying the fact that football is back. Proper football, that is, not the Club World Cup nonsense or those friendlies that actually mean very little.

Of course, being the first day of the Premier League season, I am obliged to share this video:

It’s the rules. It’s also the rules that I tell you that the original video for that song was filmed in Piketberg, very close to here.

And also being the first day of the Premier League season, I was reminded of this incredible stunt that was pulled this time last year by Showmax, in order the market their new offering:

I have never been so completely and utterly fooled in my life (ok, maybe by that blond lass on the dance floor in Madison’s in Newcastle back in 1993, but still…). Wow. It was soooo awkward.
I was on Whatsapp and every other social media platform while this was happening, wondering if it was only me that was seeing it. Thankfully, everyone else was wondering exactly the same.

I’m amazed that this didn’t get worldwide attention given just how original and convincing it was.
Literally the best marketing video I have ever seen.

I still didn’t buy the product though.

Rocket

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Another dreadful night for football, both at home and over in the UK, but there was at least this absolute thunderbeagle from Gustavo Hamer:

It didn’t do any good at the end of the night, as we seemingly head into another season of doom and gloom, but will have to go down as one of the best goals ever scored by a Sheffield United player.

In other – better – news, I’m off to watch my daughter sing in a concert this evening, and this only hours after she passed her learners’ licence test.

Watch out for another L-plated menace taking to the roads any day now…

Drafting

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Cooked Mexican food all morning.
Served it to a baying crowd this evening (once I managed to get into my own house).

Played a bit of football.
Mardy opponents.

And now it’s draft night for the fantasy football league.
Bring forth the beers and the bad decisions.

More tomorrow.

Dirty old town?

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I’m parking outside our house at the moment, because there are so many vehicles from local builders all over the road that I will get blocked in unless I assert my authority by grabbing a parking space before they steal them all. Yes, it’s annoying, but it’s better than having to struggle to get out of your own driveway when you’re in a hurry.

And as I got out of the car (outside) this morning, I spotted this shot through a little “window” in the trees.

The “window” is always there, but the smoke and the low lying smog over the Cape Flats made it a bit more noticeable today.

And honestly, if it wasn’t for that branch hanging down in the middle there, this wouldn’t be a bad photo. Sadly, that branch is hanging down in the middle there, so it’s actually a terrible photo, but when you switch on the footy highlights, you expect to get the near misses as well as the goals, don’t you?

This was a bit of a near miss.

I could remove the branch hanging down in the middle there in Photoshop, but it’s literally right in the middle of the image and it would surely be noticeable.

Or I could zoom in and crop it a bit (ok, a lot), butthen it loses the magic of the “window”…

…and it ends up looking like some dystopian Soviet petrochemical town in mid-winter.

Honestly, it’s not that bad a place, and it’s not that bad a day.

I guess that the message here is that you can’t always get the photo that you want, even if you can “see” the photo that you want in your mind’s eye. This seems to happen to me a lot, and I put it down to the limitations of my talent with the camera.

The upside of this is that when the shots do work out, it’s so much more fulfilling knowing that you spotted it, planned it and then executed the plan as well. In the meantime, I need to climb the tree down the road, and lop off that branch, so that it’s not hanging down in the middle there next time I want to get this image.

I might have to go and light a fire somewhere in the middle distance, as well.

Plot twist

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Look at this beautiful plot for sale in Suiderstrand, Cape Agulhas. Doesn’t it look idyllic?

And doesn’t sales agent Richard Pratt (stop it!) make it sound idyllic?

Situated within the Agulhas National Park, this vacant stand in Suiderstrand presents a rare opportunity to construct your coastal retreat. The land is level—ideal for straightforward construction. Lush fynbos to the rear boundary, offering a serene backdrop of indigenous flora and the soothing sound of the ocean. The clear sightlines to both the front and back of the plot make it possible to plan your home that captures sea views with clever orientation.

Approved house plans included.

Suiderstrand is a sanctuary for those drawn to serenity and natural fynbos.

Stunning, doll! Stunning!

What Richard has failed to mention here is that while this plot absolutely backs onto lush fynbos at the moment, that won’t be the case for very long, with 15 houses being built all over that very same lush fynbos in the new – and rather controversial – Moquini Bay housing estate, in the very near future.
And then this plot will back onto first a building site, and then a security estate, and not lush fynbos.

But then, I wouldn’t want to accuse Richard of being slightly disingenuous with his description of this place. After all, how on earth would he know about that new development?

Oh yes, now I remember.

He’s selling the houses there too.

Right.