The most sports-obsessed nation in Europe? That’s the UK, according to new goggle-box research from LG. Interesting though, the tech firm says the most hotly awaited sporting event is not Euro 2008, but the Olympics, with one in two people making it the continent’s favourite choice.
Perhaps this is skewed somewhat by England’s failure to qualify, but 36 per cent of Europeans say they will be tuning into Euro 2008 regardless, with 22 per cent saying they will be watching the Tour de France and 19 per cent the summer’s tennis tournaments.
According to LG, the British spend more free time watching sport on TV than any other nation, and nearly a quarter of us can spend anywhere from nine to more than 30 hours a week glued to the box, watching our favourite sporting events.
Suspicious ad
The survey was conceived to pimp LG’s plasma TVs, but it’s nothing compared to the storm currently brewing over another of LG’s marketing initiatives which has seen promotion for a fake TV series called Scarlet. The ad, from director David Nutter (of The Sopranos and Smallville fame) doesn’t mention LG, but was conceived by LG global brand marketing vice president Kwan-Sup Lee.
The ad (which aroused suspicion because of its lack of network branding) was supplemented by billboards in major cities worldwide while online ads were also launched.
But the campaign has caused a stir because some people felt duped that the series wasn’t real. Indeed, some comments left on YouTube suggested that people really were duped and expected the series to be made. Ah, diddums.
