21. World Cup Virtue Signaling

On episode 21 of The Carousel podcast, I’m joined by Pavel Fuksa, an award-winning Prague-based art director and illustrator who’s worked at Saatchi, J Walter Thompson, and Y&R. He now runs his own design studio. We cover the European advertising world and how it’s handling the woke takeover, particularly with regard to the World Cup which starts on Sunday. Islamic theocracy Qatar remains infamous for just the kind of human rights abuses involving women, homosexuality, and slave labor that woke global brands/agencies supposedly stand against. Thus we see teams taking actions, like Denmark kit maker Hummel reducing its nationalist branding because “Denmark doesn’t want to be seen” in Qatar, or USMNT switching from American colors to the rainbow flag, which is, in my view, the perfect symbol of globalism’s triumph over nationalism.However, the gay flag won’t actually appear on US jerseys. It will “merely be displayed at U.S. Soccer controlled areas, such as at night-before parties,” perhaps an even better symbol for the emptiness of World Cup virtue signaling. Not a single country or brand was willing to go beyond fidgeting with its logos or letter writing to boycotting the event, which could be just as much a globalist calculation (an opportunity to further indoctrinate the global South) as a capitalist one.Pavel and I also discuss generally terrible woke campaigns like this one for Mercedes.You get it, right, because the Mercedes is named after a woman…the founder’s daughter.Pavel’s work on InstagramPavel on TwitterThe Carousel is a reader-supported publication. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecarousel.substack.com/subscribe