Кубок мира, The World's Communication Campaign

 This past summer, my wife was in Russia visiting her family while the World Cup was taking place.  I thought how wonderful it must be to have the best event in the World in her home country while she was there.  I remembered back to the summer 1994 when the World Cup was hosted in the United States and how amazing it seemed.  My family and I were driving from California to North Carolina (after flying from Hawaii, of course) as my father was completing duty transfer to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.  The memories of listening to a different match on the radio each day as we drove across the country brought warmth to my heart.  That summer was really when legends were born to me, and my first heroes emerged.  The Romanian Gheorghe Hagi. The Russian Oleg Salenko.  Also, America’s first true soccer stars were born that summer.  Alexi Lalas, Tony Meola, Marcelo Balboa and co.  I hoped that my wife would develop similar feelings and create her own memories, but deep down I knew that it would not be like mine.  My wife is not a football fan.  Oftentimes, she wonders why I am.  Alas, the 2018 World Cup was different than any other for many reasons.  The political climate around the world, for one thing, has changed significantly, particularly the relationship between the United States and Russia.  One thing that I knew that I hoped the World Cup would teach her, is that the World Cup itself offers entire nations something that they cannot get anywhere else- a chance to re-introduce themselves on the world stage, a chance to be seen as hosts, and to endear themselves to hundreds of thousands of visitors.  In short, it represents the greatest strategic communications campaign in the world.

When I was reminiscing about the magical summer of 1994, I remembered how Columbia, although not hosts of the tournament, were hoping their performance would repair their world image.  There was a brilliant ESPN 30 for 30 episode called A Tale of Two Escobars, which detailed how Colombia wanted to shed its image of a violent society of drug traffickers and murderers through football.  The Colombian team had a magisterial qualifying campaign which saw them defeat Brazil, while playing phenomenal football. They were so good that they entered the tournament as favorites.  However, due to behind-the-scenes events (you have to see the documentary), the team performed poorly and were eliminated, complete with an own-goal scored by rising star Andres Escobar, who had just signed to play for an Italian powerhouse in Serie A once the tournament ended.  In the cruelest of fashions, Colombia was undermined by the very thing it was trying to shed, as Escobar was murdered in Colombia for accidentally scoring into his own goal and ending his nation's World Cup dream.  Colombia failed football, and football failed Colombia.  I can never forget this incident, not only for its sadness, but because it shows the opposite of what football is, and what it is meant to communicate to the world.

Back to Russia though, this is a happy story, that shows a resoundingly successful communication campaign.  Armed with full knowledge of how they are viewed around the world politically, Russia knew that they had to put its common people in the spotlight.  Throughout the tournament, pre-game vignettes and features took television viewers down the lesser-known paths and into the cities and towns of normal people and shared personal stories.  They expertly navigated their own history, not shying away from military history of wars, and humanized an entire nation.  Aside from Mexico’s defeat of Germany, these were among my favorite parts of the 2018 World Cup.  Arkady Dvorkovich, the chairman of the local organizing committee for the World Cup expressed his pleasure after the tournament, saying that Russia had demonstrated its openness and hospitality to the entire world.  More importantly, he expressed with sincerity that “this is how we are for real”.  My experience now as an extended (in-law) part of a Russian family is that he was right.  The Russians that I have encountered in my life and are now family to, are among the warmest people I have known.  No matter what, they will feed you and welcome you. Russia needed the world to see people, to be seen the way I see my wife.  Shortly after the World Cup ended, I read an article on UK website titled “The World Cup Helped Russia Put on its Best Face- and the World Smiled Back”.  It was a brilliant article that explained how the writer broke his own pre-conceived stereotypes of “cold places” and “cold people”.  The writer also detailed how Russian cuisine benefitted from the coverage to overcome an image of blandness by showing off some local delicacies.  While watching the tournament, I enjoyed this coverage as it introduced many viewers to foods they likely had never seen.  We went beyond borscht and were enamored with infusions from Armenia, Uzbekistan, Georgia, and Ukraine. 

When looking back on World Cup 2018, we still need to keep our feet on the ground. I know from experience that every 4 years the world becomes enamored and that eventually life goes on.  The World Cup will not make the world forget Russia’s place in the world, its political situation, and the reputation of its leader, Vladimir Putin.  Additionally, Russia’s human rights issues, corruption, and immigration policies will ensure that critics and enemies of Russia will remain as such.  However, despite these truths, the World Cup, when assessed from a communication campaign, cannot be seen as anything other than a resounding success for the country.  Millions of people were introduced to its culture, history, hospitality, and the good things.  A country is, after all, people.  And there are good people everywhere. 

For the record, my wife did come around quite a bit, largely due to the incredible performance of Russia, who played out of their minds, reaching a stage they had no business reaching, which is part of the magic of the World Cup.  I cried a bit when Mexico defeated Germany in their opening match.  Those who understand the importance of that one magic moment, will understand why.  My wife, for her part, cried when Croatia eliminated Russia, finally feeling a bit of what my words could not tell her.  You just have to feel it.  Not everybody does, those who do are lucky.