After writing my post about that Kraken Spiced Rum ad today,
and then watching the Euro 2012 soccer tournament quarterfinal game today
between Germany and Greece, it occurred to me that Kraken Spiced Rum could be a
sponsor of the Euro 2012 tournament, because then we could see their ads a
lot during the coverage. (In fact, I believe I have seen their ads during the game today, so they may be an actual sponsor after all.) And if they were a sponsor, then they could make
something special specifically for the tournament, right? And I think I’ve got just the idea,
seeing as how they’re using a giant octopus as their mascot, and this is a
soccer tournament (and particularly with today’s game including Germany).
Remember Paul the Octopus, the “psychic” cephalopod from the
2010 World Cup, who predicted the outcome of games Germany played, and he was
correct in every prediction? Well, seeing as how Kraken Spiced Rum is using a
giant octopus as their Kraken, they could have an ad where the Kraken predicts
the outcome of the soccer tournament games. Wouldn’t that be fun, for soccer
fans, and especially for fans of Germany and Spain (two teams that are doing
pretty well and may end up in the final playing each other, and who were the
big to-do in the Paul the Octopus “prediction” phenomenon from 2010)?
And with the octopus and a soccer tournament colliding on
the TV screen, competing for air time (as in, ads for Kraken rum would be
running during coverage of the games, so both things are competing for your
attention), it would be the perfect way to tie them in together for promotional
purposes. And once people saw this commercial, with the Kraken predicting the
outcome of soccer games like Paul the Octopus did two years ago, they would not
be likely to forget it; and for rabid soccer fans, they might reward that
effort to connect with them by buying Kraken Spiced Rum. (I might do that, had
they made and run an ad like this one I’m suggesting here.)
So here’s how this ad would work: There would be animation
in the style of the existing Kraken ads showing two ships on the ocean, each
one with the flag of each (fictitious*) country playing in a purportedly upcoming
match. (Just generic flags that match the color schemes of the team uniforms
would be used.) So then the Kraken strikes from the bowels of the ocean, and it
crushes one of the ships and takes it down to the bottom of the sea with it.
Then we see the final score and (fake) highlights from a (fictitious) game from
a soccer tournament, demonstrating that the winning team was indeed the one from the
country whose ship was attacked and sunk (and hence “chosen”) by the Kraken,
similar to the way in which Paul the Octopus operated. (He chose food to eat
from one of two boxes, each one marked with a flag for the countries in the
upcoming game for Germany; and he was accurate in “predicting” the outcome of
all seven games Germany played in the tournament, as well as Spain’s victory over Holland in the final.) Then the announcers/analysts
would talk about what a perfect record the Kraken has with predicting the outcome
of games in this (fictitious version of the) tournament, etc.
This is Paul the Octopus, and how he demonstrated his
oracular abilities in the 2010 World Cup:
And this is what the Kraken Spiced Rum ads look like (so you can get a rough idea of what it would look like if they made the ad):
* Fictitious so that nobody gets insulted or offended and
feels like Kraken rum is taking sides, or having it look like they’re getting
predictions wrong: the whole idea is just to make a fun play on reminding
everyone about Paul the Octopus, from the 2010 World Cup.
