"That old 'distract the goalie' trick"

[Victor Steinbok]

I think, you missed the point of the commercial, although, I have to
admit, it may take several takes to get it. The original shot is of one
group trying to distract the goalie with a T&A panel. *In response*, the
other side of the stadium puts up its own set of cards. The message, I
guess, could be that beer trumps sex, which is consistent with *other*
Bud Light commercials of recent vintage. On the other hand, since the
goalie is never involved in the play (the kicker misses the goal
completely), one could argue that we don't actually know if one trumps
the other. In any case, I suspect the premise of "distract the goalie"
at least partially holds.

Of more interest, from the language perspective, seems to be the
follow-up comment, "Wide right!" The phrase has nothing to do with
soccer and I have never heard it used either while playing or watching
the game. I am sure the English fans will back me up on this. If
anything, there are often comments about how far the shot missed the
goal post, but practically *never* anything about the direction in which
the shot is missed, unless it's essential to describing the play (e.g.,
using outside of a right foot to miss to the right of the post, etc.).
There is simply a different culture--the phrase clearly comes from
American football jargon, not from soccer and is aimed at American
audience, most of whom, presumably, could not care less about the
underlying plot.

     VS-)

On 6/23/2010 12:11 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> How 'bout them 'Mericans?
>
> But also how about this Budweiser World Cup commercial?  With a free
> kick about to be taken, the narration is "It's that old 'distract the
> goalie' trick."  But the distracting wall of cards is held up
> *behind* the goalie, facing the *kicker*, who then kicks wide
> right.  (There is, I think, a brief shot facing the kicker that does
> show fans at the other end also holding up cards, but they are far,
> far away from the action.)
>
> Some infelicitous adman apparently was thinking some combination of
> NBA, NHL and (the best analogy) NFL, which all would be "distract the
> shooter/kicker" -- but wrote "goalie".
>
> Joel
>

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