Out of Home
In the stands, a giant television screen
By Toni Fitzgerald
Jun 11, 2009 - 1:01:12 AM

It's a tradition in Brazil. During soccer games, fans show their devotion to their favorite teams by displaying canvas flags bearing the team's name.

The flags are often huge, requiring as many as 50 people to hold them over their heads.

So nothing seemed particularly unusual when at an April championship match in the state of Paraná, just minutes into the game, a giant banner began unfurling.

But as it turns out, it wasn’t a team banner at all but an image of a giant TV set, the edges white, with the tuning knobs at the bottom right. The center, representing the screen, was transparent (see photo, below).

When fully unfurled and held aloft, it looked as though the people under the transparent portion--roughly 60 fans--were on television.

At the bottom of the screen were the words “Sua Vida Passa Aqui,” or “Your Life Passes Here.”

That's the tagline of the RPC TV network, which was televising the game and was also the sponsor of the flag stunt.

“The client, RPC, asked us to create an action that marked the presence of its brand in the football championship of Paraná,” says Sulivan Cruz of the Brazilian agency Beats Below the Line, which created the stunt for the network.

“The idea was inspired by what the supporters do in the stadium during the football game. Here in Brazil it is very common to show your love for your football team by stretching a big flag. The agency thought to combine these two things, so the idea ended in a flag looking like a huge TV.”

The stunt worked on two levels.

It demanded people’s attention in the way that the usual stadium ads, placed around the field or near food kiosks, do not. And it served as a visual reminder of what the advertiser was selling--television.

The flag, which was approved beforehand by both teams participating in the game, was unfurled early in the contest so as not to distract fans when the score was tight, but it still got the attention of the TV announcer. He commented on it, and the camera lingered on the flag for several seconds before returning to the action on the field.

Thus the stunt was seen not only by the 20,000 fans attending the game but also by the roughly 1 million watching on television.

It has also gotten lots of play on blogs and sports sites as well as several hundred hits on YouTube since April.

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