Vend it like Beckham

Since everyone else is doing Beckham articles, we feel freed from our self-imposed constraint not to do anymore. But we promise, no detailed football talk. Instead, we focus on a funny item from the London Times, in which one of their reporters crashed a Becks news conference in Japan from which the western media had been excluded. The reporter is quite blunt in his assessment of why the Becks management team keeps out the western hacks from such events:

It is very common for foreign superstars, actors or sportsmen to appear in commercials when they come to Japan. These commercials are aimed at the Japanese market and the style is completely different from what we see in Europe. In short, these ads are tacky and make many superstars look silly.

As an example, check out some of the pictures from Beckham's ad for Meiji chocolate bars. Two pictures. On the left, just what exactly is Becks promoting? Oh yes, that weirdly positioned chocolate covered almond in the lower corner. And as for the picture on the right, it mostly speaks for itself -- but couldn't they have had the love-heart line from Becks to the chocolate bending like one of his free kicks?