Calls to boycott Gillette are among the ramifications to come from French football player Thierry Henry’s goal-producing assist in his country’s World Cup qualifier against Ireland.
Operating in a recession is hard enough without a whole country campaigning to boycott your products because of a football game that had nothing to do with us!!
Henry, usually a clean player with a great career behind him will now always be remembered by his use of the left hand to control the ball before crossing to William Gallas who then scored the winning goal which led to a place in the World Cup finals and millions of euros in revenue at stake.
Although Henry, an ambassador for Gillette (alongside gentlemen players Roger Federer and Tiger Woods) has admitted his error, the furore has grown from Irish supporters over the resulting French win and they are campaigning via social networking sites to call for a boycott of Gillette products.
Regardless of the financial ramifications of this, Gillette-owner Procter & Gamble has denied Henry’s actions would affect his £5m deal with the brand.
I more than anyone would rather see Ireland than France in the World Cup, but Henry did admit to the ref that he hand-balled therefore shouldn’t be blamed! And what does P&G have to do with it?
Let’s see how long the Irish can last without ‘the best a man can get’! You’ll either be seeing big beards or cut faces!
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m English…. so naturally I hate the French… it’s a given! However, there are 2 ways to look at this.
Firstly – the competitive side. Henry did what it took to win. He “cheated”, yea, i’ll accept it…. but he grasped an “opportunity”… and it worked for him. Players cheat in every game, at critical points in major tournaments…. it happens.. get over it. It’s part and parcel of policing the game. What if they did have technology in sport, but they didnt have the right angle… would people still complain? Ofcourse they would.
Second – Gillette will probably sell more blades now that Henry cheated than previously…. it’s weird how these things work… but it definitely works for Gillette.
It’s amazing to see people go ballistic about a handball decision, but not about something which REALLY affects people. Shocking!
I totally agree with you! It was the Ref’s fault! And I’d say that for Ireland it meant going out on a high rather than being embarrassed in the first round by being knocked out by New Zealand or the USA! :-p
And for Gillette sales… well there are 65 million people in France vs. 4 million in Ireland… I should start a “Acheter Gillette” campaign in France to help P&G sales!