If you've watched the recent FIFA World Cup, you will know what these are. If you're not a footie fan, let me explain: they are vuvuzelas, stadium horns used at football matches in South Africa. They make a monotone sound that resembles loud buzzing when you're watching a match on the TV. Very annoying but also quite distinctive.
I took this photo in Plaka, Athens, a few days after the world cup final between the Netherlands and Spain (Spain won). I've never before seen them on sale anywhere in Europe, which makes me think about the power of televised international sport.
8 comments:
I think I'd much rather look at your photo than hear them. I wonder where the rest of Europe gets theirs?
Who knows? I blame globalisation ;-)
Totally agree that they're better to look at than listen to. Most World Cup matches were painful to watch this time round, even if your team was winning (which in my case didn't happen often enough).
There were long queues at the South African consulate in Milan, during the World Cup, when they gave some vuvuzelas free every day.
I hate the thing and the sound and no amount of global promotion would change my mind.
Talk about clever publicity! Now that the World Cup season is behind us, I hope those who bought or got given vuvuzelas will forget all about them.
I don't think we have those things here. But we do have horns. In fact, the last time I went to a professional football game was in Houston, Texas in about 1977 or 1978. Between the drunks and the noise from the horns, I felt it just wasn't worth the aggravation!
All I can say is, I hope that trend doesn't catch on in Europe!
Large horn producing a monotone and annoying sound. How's that for a smashing product? Apparently, we can easily be persuaded into buying just about anything.
You can say that again!
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