Organizers of the 2010 World Cup have worked with Total Immersion and CrossPlatform.TV to deploy a series of kiosks around the world in preparation for the big game. The kiosk will show video of passers-by and overlay randomly selected country’s flags over their face, giving the illusion that they have painted a country’s flag on their face, and then play the selected country’s national anthem.
It’s not terribly interactive, but it is a fascinating experiment in trying to build international camaraderie by making fans imagine themselves as if they were fans of another country’s team. How would they feel if they had that other country’;s flag painted on their faces and heard its national anthem? Were they from that country, they would probably feel proud. How does the AR make them feel? Perhaps like a more worldly, sympathetic person. That sounds like a positive World Cup experience.
Now, I’m not a big fan of Soccer (or Football, for that matter), but from what I know of it, it’s a big deal. I can imagine these kiosk’s will not last long before some disgruntled British Soccer fan obliterates it for showing Spain’s flag and anthem on their face.
Actually, Britain doesn’t have a national football team. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland play as separate nations, and only England have qualified for the World Cup in 2010.
I’d like to think it wouldn’t get smashed up, but you get idiots everywhere.
I would love to see the marketing plan/strategies that this weird campaign is fulfilling. Agree that the Brits (and the Italians, and the Germans, and the Brazilians, and the Mexicans, etc., etc.) will not be amused.