I am full of rage right now. Pure unadulterated rage.
I was watching the Australia v South Africa rugby match in this year’s Rugby World Cup. I glanced at Twitter and saw a few people in my stream tweeting to the @qantaswallabies account.
This rage has been building up inside me for all my time living in Australia but I feel that I should put down in words what I’ve been thinking.
HOW DARE YOU SELL OUT YOUR OWN COUNTRIES NATIONAL TEAM BY FLOGGING IT WITH A BRAND!!?!?!
If the Scottish Football Association even attempted to brand the Scottish football team and tie it in with say the Royal Bank of Scotland or British Airways or anything … even Irn Bru there would be a war in the country with people storming the HQ of both the SFA and whichever company decided to try and take over the team.
A national football team is just that. It’s a team associated with the country. It has nothing to do with a brand.
Yes brands can sponsor. Yes they can even have their names on the tops but they should never have the right to re-brand the name of the country from Australia to the Qantas Wallabies. The Twitter account, the Facebook account etc should all be named after the country and code or the Association – it should NEVER be linked intrinsically with a brand.
Forgive my writing today. I’m just so angry that people in Australia seem to take this for granted. It’s wrong. It’s really fucking wrong. The people who came up with the idea should be flogged in the main streets.
They have taken the identity of their country and sold it.
Imagine that.
Imagine selling your country…to a brand.
Total and utter disgrace.
kiltforhire 
Dammit, you are right! To be honest, never thought about it. It should be the Australian Wallabies, sponsored by Qantas.
Yeah totally agree. That’s exactly what it should be.
It’s your national team not a company trying to flog flights team.
As I see it, the biggest problem with having a national team anchored to a brand, is the identity and the reputation of the team is no longer based on the team’s actions and performance. It’s tough to have pride in a national team when, for instance, the company who bought them is in the middle of industrial action, or suffering from their own performance issues.
Here’s Julia Gillard and John Howard appearing in a TVC for Qantas under the guise of supporting said national team. What’s in store for the future? A serving PM spruiking the Horny Goat Weed 24-pack Caplets Wallabies?
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2011/qantas-wallabies-one-team/
L
Excellent point.
In NZ we have an associated issue – the All Blacks being considered, and openly called a ‘brand’ as opposed to a national team.
That said, there’d be riot in the streets if anyone tried to call them the “Air New Zealand All Blacks” or similar.
(Instead the players get shopped around to appear – without having much right to refuse, I suspect – in any number of ads. Or, as one satirical headline had it:
Rugby Match Threatens to Disrupt AB’s Busy Schedule of Appearing in Television Commercials.
Money makes Australia go round.
It shouldn’t though. Selling your national team is just wrong.
Only Australia seems to do it.