Brands Can’t Resist Taking Chomp Out Of Luis Suarez World Cup Bite Controversy

It probably won’t be a laughing matter for Uruguay after star player Luis Suarez is punished for his latest on-field biting incident — his third since 2010! But the incident proved irresistible for brands trolling for real-time marketing opportunities. Suarez, the controversial striker, was caught on film apparently biting the back of Italian defender Giorgio […]

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Published on June 24, 2014 • Last updated on May 13, 2021 • 2 minutes read

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    It probably won’t be a laughing matter for Uruguay after star player Luis Suarez is punished for his latest on-field biting incident — his third since 2010! But the incident proved irresistible for brands trolling for real-time marketing opportunities.

    Suarez, the controversial striker, was caught on film apparently biting the back of Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini late in Uruguay’s 1-0 World Cup Group D victory. The loss knocked Italy out of the World Cup. The alleged bite, likely to be cause for suspension, drove Twitter wild; in the first hour the bite was mentioned 339,269 times on Twitter, according to social-media analytics company Sysomos, Mashable reported.

    Brands immediately jumped on the easy newsjacking opportunity. Most notably, the Twitter account of McDonald’s Uruguay, recommended Suarez bite into a Big Mac if he was still hungry:

     

    That theme — bite this, not soccer players — was carried through by most brands who joined the fray. We’ve displayed many of them below, but have to wonder what businesses are hoping to accomplish by associating themselves with this incident.

    What do you think?

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    At least the food related tweets made sense — and were arguably funny on their own. On the other hand, JC Penney, lacking an edible product to pitch, went with a pun that fell flat:

     

    Contributing authors are invited to create content for MarTech and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the martech community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. MarTech is owned by Semrush. Contributor was not asked to make any direct or indirect mentions of Semrush. The opinions they express are their own.

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    Martin Beck

    Martin Beck was Third Door Media's Social Media Reporter from March 2014 through December 2015.

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