Pascal would have approved
Sports, capitalism, sex and philosophy: This is why we love the French. In what is surely the most brilliant ad campaign ever devised in European sports, Hyeres-Toulon Var Basket has launched a new campaign promoting – ostensibly – it’s supercheap tickets for upcoming Pro A games (starting at just €5 and kids under 14 get in free!) and the new offical team rubber ducky. (Hyeres-Toulon’s mascot is a dolphin, but go figure.
Kicking off with the slightly-tweaked Blaise Pascal (a huge basketball guy, so BiE hears) line “L’homme [et la femme] est né pour le plaisir: il le sent, il n’en faut point d’autre preuve” (“Man [and woman] is born for pleasure: He feels it; no other proof is needed”), the “Ducky Toy: Pure Pleasure” campaign then slips right out of the philosophical frying pan and into the shower with Vincent Masingue and Nobel Boungou Colo.
And since Pascal would surely have agreed that a picture’s worth a thousand words, here’s the ad:
A jock hasn’t had this much fun in the locker room since Terrell Owens blew off his Monday Night Football date for a desperate housewife.
Asks the ad: “What’s better than Toy Duckie HTV to symbolize the pursuit of pleasure?” To that, no more can be added except that BiE may have a new favorite Pro A team. Oh, and “Vive la France!”
