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World Cup Hunks

Whether they’re life-long, die-hard soccer fans, whether watching out of pure love of country, or to see the variety of handsome players (or some combination of all three), women watch the World Cup.  Yet if you check soccer fansites, sports publications, or watch any of the games on TV, you’ll notice that all ads are targeting men.  This is to be expected of any sporting event- do you recall seeing any ads specifically targeting women play during the 2010 Super Bowl (my thoughts on the male-centric Super Bowls ads are here)?

Britain’s Guardian newspaper recently had a great feature discussing why, although advertisers in that football-mad country know that female viewership of England games jumps to about 48%, they have decided not to pursue women this year.  Advertisers claim that female-focused campaigns often cannot afford the astronomical advertising budgets for the World Cup.  Says one British ad exec, “A female-targeted advertiser would pay considerably more to reach women in a World Cup game than they would in a prime time  show such as Coronation Street.  Also, for some, the World Cup won’t be the right environment for their brand.”

Enjoy the World Cup, ladies

So while advertising won’t target women specifically, female viewers can still enjoy exciting matches between their favorite teams- and know that they are not the only women watching, even if they may be in the minority in the bar, pub, or home viewing party where they watch the games.  If not for female interest in a certain other aspect of the sport, Vanity Fair would never have decided to go with a World Cup cover for its June issue featuring a shirtless Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast.  The feature article inside the magazine features more players in their undies, at left, like Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon and Landon Donovan of the U.S. Ladies, sit back, relax, and enjoy the jogo bonito (with or without ads targeted at us).  Seeing the handsome players is good enough!