Hand of Frog
Those of you who follow football will be aware of France’s qualification to the 2010 World Cup at the expense of Ireland with a controversial winning goal. The goal came after French star Thierry Henry controlled the ball twice with his hand before crossing to his team-mate William Gallas to tuck it into the net. The London tabloids (bless them) called it the “Hand of Frog.”
Thierry Henry is one of 3 men (Tiger Woods and Roger Federer being the others) who are part of a Gillette global branding campaign. A recent image on the Gillette website in France featured the 3 stars holding the tools of their respective trades. Rather than showing Thierry Henry with a ball at his feet, the picture shows him holding the ball with his “hand of frog”. As my colleague Ted commented: who should get a raise this year?
1) The creative director or pompous photographer who thought shooting this image with the ball in Henry’s hand was a better idea than placing it his feet.
2) The brand manager who called the agency first thing Monday morning to tell them to fix the site.
3) The producer and post house (web designer…?) that made it look effortless.
Personally, I still think it looks like someone’s chopped his hand off, but that might just be me
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:29 am
When you think about the most successful brands in sports marketing (Nike, Gatorade, Under Armour, EA, etc) authenticity and relevancy are probably two of the most important themes that resonate throughout their identity.
It’s amazing to see how many brands don’t get that. Unless Henry is training to be a goalkeeper there is no reason why he should be holding that ball.
At least Tiger isn’t swinging the golf club like a baseball bat. Wonder if his personal transgressions will change the layout of this site down the road.
December 17th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Interesting - I wonder what they will chop off of Tiger’s picture?