Showing posts with label World Cup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Cup. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Thanks Andy, for the worthy message

My Paper, Tuesday, July 22, 2014, Page A10, News, Top Stories, Opinion
From http://epaper.mypaper.sg/emnd/fvxen/fvxp/fvxpress.php?param=2014-07-22
Source Website: http://mypaper.sg/opinion/thanks-andy-worthy-message-20140722
By Daniel Yun, mypaper, myp@sph.com.sg, Published on Jul 22, 2014


SCORE ONE FOR SINGAPORE
PHOTO: SCORE ONE FOR SINGAPORE: The National Council on Problem Gambling's anti-gambling ad campaign is simple and effective, and we should celebrate what we do well and be proud that the world took notice.
PHOTO: REUTERS
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0OHM0ZkCtMyqcKvWtPT5IKsdwnzPNo3saQVHStXFCSERhphJpKGrcu-PkecfOKuXjD6940n20j0gmnBdoLR5GnfMGBXxIOGp3-e-CQc-hPdDW-c2TY1NGMz592BY6-8kezs34Nj-4UL4/s1600/MY_20140722_OPINION22_P_511805-1.jpg
http://mypaper.sg/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/20140722/MY_20140722_OPINION22_P_511805.jpg
http://mypaper.sg/opinion/thanks-andy-worthy-message-20140722


IS THE World Cup fever well and truly over?

There seems to be some afterlife for the Andy anti-gambling advertisement. Andy's dad, who had bet all his savings on Germany winning the World Cup, should be happy.

I first saw this commercial by the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) over a month ago, in a cinema. It stood out. I remember thinking that it was effective.

This was way before it started to be lampooned after Germany's 7-1 semi-final thrashing of host Brazil.

When the final whistle was blown, with Argentina beaten 1-0 by Germany on July 13, the wisecracks and ridicule took on a whole new life of their own.

The Singapore media reported on the council's stand, with soundbites by advertising executives supporting it.

This campaign may have been spoofed around the world, but the council believes it has done its job in spreading the anti-gambling message.

NCPG has gone on to provide statistics on the increase in calls to its 24-hour helpline and in the number of requests for counselling services.

Chairman Lim Hock San said: "Despite the memes and jokes, we believe that the audience understood our message. They are now aware of NCPG and who to call when they encounter issues of problem gambling."

I found this reaction a tad defensive, if unnecessary.

What happened to the confidence of our public service? I know, I know. Only recently, disbelief and even outrage had flowed thick and fast through the online space over commercial videos by SingTel, Singapore Tourism Board and the People's Action Party's youth wing.

Those - well, how can I put it politely - are in a different bracket.

They crossed the line in terms of taste, quality and effectiveness.

The advertising campaign by NCPG, however, is good. It is simple and effective. And it struck gold.

The buzz created exceeded NCPG's wildest imagination.

No one - including the advertising agency behind this advertisement, Goodfellas - could have planned for such worldwide coverage in the international media, including The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian,

Reuters and a mention in the opening monologue by American TV host Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show.

Public-relations agencies, marketing companies or anyone in promotions would have popped champagne and celebrated.

Yet, Patrick Low, the founder of Goodfellas, did not want to comment on the impact of the Andy ad.

Some in the communications industry have gone so far as to say that damage was done, the central message was lost and the high awareness was counterproductive.

Andy is played by Bapist Lim. His mother was protective of both Bapist and his real father from the media, saying, "He is doing fine. The ad didn't really impact us much…Now that the World Cup is over, we are just waiting for all this to blow over."

When Germany finally won, NCPG's comeback, while admittedly simple, is a logical follow through.

In it, another child asks Andy: "Your dad's team won. Did you get your savings back?"

Andy replies: "No, dad never stops… He wants to bet one more time."

This advertising campaign will run till tomorrow. I think we had a good ad campaign and a worthy message the first time.

With extreme good luck, it was boosted royally by the most topical sports event in four years.

The whole world took notice. Why are we almost apologising for our good fortune? Why are we justifying it?

It did not attract attention for all the wrong reasons. Can we try to see the situation for what it really is?

The whole world could not believe how accurate the Andy ad was. The whole world was laughing with us, not at us.

It is time for us to celebrate what we do well, especially when a seemingly dubious spotlight shines on what we do.

If we are not doing anything wrong, if we are confident, we should laugh with them. While looking up thankfully at Lady Luck.

By Daniel Yun, mypaper, myp@sph.com.sg, Published on Jul 22, 2014
The writer is a film-maker and life coach. He blogs at danielyunhx.com



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Saturday, July 10, 2010

Let’s cross over now live to Paul ...

WEEKEND TODAY JULY 10 - 11, 2010, WORLD CUP 2010, PAGE W3
From http://imcms2.mediacorp.sg/CMSFileserver/documents/006/PDF/20100710/1007WSP036.pdf
By Agencies



PHOTO: Paul is firmly in the Spain camp. AFP
WEEKEND TODAY JULY 10 - 11, 2010, WORLD CUP 2010, PAGE W3



WORLD CUP 2010

BERLIN - Eyes around the world were on Germany’s octopus oracle Paul on Friday as he made his biggest prediction yet in the World Cup: Spain will beat Holland in the final on Sunday (Monday morning, Singapore time).

Paul’s perfect record of prescient picks in the World Cup have propelled him to international fame from obscurity a month ago in an aquarium in the western city of Oberhausen.

TV stations in Germany, Great Britain, Taiwan and elsewhere broadcast live pictures, complete with breathless commentary, of his final decision for the tournament.

Millions watched as the world-famous octopus descended upon on a tank marked with a Spanish flag, sitting for only a few minutes before grabbing a mussel and devouring it, while completely ignoring the Dutch tank, indicating a Spanish victory.

Earlier on Friday, he predicted that Germany will beat Uruguay in the third place playoff on Saturday (Sunday morning, Singapore time).

It was the first time he’d been tasked to pick a game in which Germany wasn’t involved, as the Oberhausen Sea Life aquarium bowed to overwhelming demand to see who he would choose in the final.

The two-and-a-half-year-old Paul correctly predicted Germany’s wins over Argentina, England, Australia and Ghana and the country’s losses to Serbia in the group stage and Spain in the semi-final.

Paul’s handlers say he is coping with fame well. Said Sea Life aquarium manager Stefan Porwoll: “Paul is such a professional oracle, he doesn’t even care that hundreds of journalists are watching and commenting on every move he makes.

“We’re so proud of him.” Paul first started calling matches during the 2008 European Championship in which he got five out of six games involving Germany correctly, but international stardom only arrived with his World Cup prognostications.

Spain’s defeat of Germany in the semifinals, as predicted by Paul, prompted many Germans to wonder about how he would taste grilled for dinner.

Porwoll said the aquarium actually stepped up security but added that Paul gets a lot more fan mail that hate mail.

“We’ve been getting tonnes of requests from around the globe,” said Porwoll. “People want to ask Paul about their marriage prospects, the gender of their future baby or the outcome of upcoming elections.”

German TV stations have offered the eight-legged psychic lucrative contracts for his post-World Cup life, said Porwoll.
Paul has even made waves in the business world. Gary Jenkins, an economist with London’s Evolution Securities, hedged his market analysis note on Friday, conceding “unless Paul says differently”. “We did try and hire Paul the Octopus but we understand he is Goldman’s bound,” said Jenkins, referring to the bank Goldman Sachs.

While Paul is no doubt the world’s most famous animal oracle these days, he is facing competition. Pauline, a female octopus in Dutch captivity, has predicted victory for Holland in the final, her aquarium said on Friday.

“She chose the Netherlands,” said Maaike Schroeder, spokeswoman for the Sea Life aquarium in Scheveningen.

It was, however, only four-year-old Pauline’s first attempt at divination, using a similar method to that employed for Paul.

In Singapore, a World Cup-forecasting parakeet Mani also picked the Oranje, creeping out of his cage to choose between two white cards, one hiding a Dutch flag, the other Spanish.
By Agencies

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Slide Tackle, special edition - Paul the Psychic Octopus

From Website: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/sport/soccer/article_1569722.php/Slide-Tackle-special-edition-Paul-the-Psychic-Octopus
Jul 9, 2010, 15:39 GMT
By © Deutsche Presse-Agentur



PHOTO: http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/jabulani-ball.jpg



PHOTO: FIFA World Cup 2010 at South Africa
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfvN-SMLPzunZpzTemFBtnHgNvjoy00l8IoUVrHEZgUeMx9JBeS-gsyQvETd0vO4dDv5pcIffjrvPikRTPbFic0xaGKBH6_woNL-A76c8FlXUBhPgehZiUMO8ApE7flkG0gTcmtB9EuS0l/s400/2010-FIFA-world-Cup+mania.jpg


Hamburg - A special edition of the slide tackle column on the occasion of Paul the psychic octopus' final World Cup predictions made on Friday.

BET ON PAUL - The Daily Telegraph says that bookies William Hill are accepting bets on the accuracy of celebrity psychic octopus Paul's prediction for the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands. However, the number of bets was so colossal even before Paul predicted Spain to win on Sunday that odds were cut from evens to 10/11. William Hill said that if someone had placed a 10-pound accumulator bet on all of Paul's predictions he would have already won 1,426 pounds by now. 'This is the first time we've genuinely had punters coming into betting shops and asking staff about the predictions made by an octopus,' a spokesman said.




PAUL'S NEWS - Paul's final predictions attracted a huge television audience and all the attention of other news gathering bodies as well. Spanish and Dutch television reported live from the Oberhausen aquarium as Paul chose the mussel from the cube bearing the Spanish flag. German television was also also on air among others, and Paul's prediction was even worth an urgent for The Associated Press news agency.

PAUL'S BAD - British professor David Spiegelharter is throwing in the towel over Paul's predictions, according to The Times. 'Curse that psychic octopus. He makes me look a fool,' Spiegelharter tells the paper. Spiegelharter is a Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University and, even though he doesn't consider Paul's predictions remarkable, still fears that students will make life difficult for him in the future by asking him about the psychic octopus during lectures.




PAUL HERE, PAUL THERE - Paul's astonishing World Cup accuracy opens the door for other predictions/choices or simply to steal his name to make the own product more interesting. Twitter user rupertg firmly believes that Paul has the capacity to solve the smartphone war for good: 'Can we sort this out once and for all, and give Paul the Psychic Octopus two boxes - one with an iPhone and one an Android?' British punk rock band Pick Your Weapon, meanwhile believe 'I bet LeBron James, Raoul Moat, and Paul the Psychic Octopus would dig listening to our EP at the British Grand Prix.'

IN SQUID WE TRUST - That is an almost standard remark after Paul's prediction of the final - unless you are Dutch. Reports have surfaced that they have come up with a cephalopod of their own - nicely named Pauline and nicely predicting a Dutch win over Spain on Sunday. Pauline's Sea Life Aquarium in Scheveningen has also offered Paul asylum after angry German reactions. 'We have a free aquarium and maybe he even hits it off with Pauline,' said a spokesman.




GRATEFUL PAUL - Paul is grateful that Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero is ready to send a protective team for him as he is not all too happy with German reactions after the semi-final. Speaking to the Time Magazine website, Paul says 'I'm fighting for my frickin' life here. I've read reports that there were calls over here for me to be roasted with lemon juice and olive oil or even turned into a plate of paella. Don't get me wrong: I can smile at the irony of the paella scenario. But it doesn't mean I want to end up on someone's plate. I will never go against Germany again.'
By © Deutsche Presse-Agentur








11:55 AM Jul 08, 2010
According to Der Western, a newspaper, there have been "a host of comments on Facebook, Twitter suggesting Paul should be fried, barbecued or turned into a seafood salad or paella ... Others wanted to throw him into the shark tank."

"We know that all octopus have nine brains so we know he has exceptional powers."

The container selected by the octopus is assumed to be the predicted winner and so far Paul has a 100-per-cent success rate for all six of Germany's fixtures during World Cup 2010 - including, unfortunately, the semi-final.
By THE DAILY TELEGRAPH








There have been no such death threats for Mani in Singapore who predicted all four winners of the quarter-finals correctly and has pecked for the Dutch.

The bird has rapidly gained cult status among gambling-mad soccer fans who have been flocking to its astrologer owner's shop in the hope of winning big.




Local media reports said Mani - dubbed "magical bird" and "homegrown psychic parakeet" - used its beak to pick a card bearing the flag of the Netherlands over one with Spain's national colours.
By Copyright © 2010 AFP



PHOTO: http://jetztimg.sueddeutsche.de/upl/images/user/to/tobias-moorstedt/384391.jpg



PHOTO: http://images.teamtalk.com/08/06/800x600/Euro-2008-Final-Germany-Spain-Fans-10_991745.jpg



PHOTO: http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/images/deadspin/2008/06/eurofinal.jpg




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