If you are in London this week you will not fail to notice the massive ad campaign that is being undertaken by Under Armour in support of Andy Murray’s return to grass at the Aegon Championship at the Queen’s Club.
It’s the main warm up event for Wimbledon and is a tournament that Murray has won five times in the past.
Under Armour went all out to make sure their principal tennis asset looks the part and designed a special new kit, redolent of the Union Jack and emphasising his place on British sports fans affections.
They went one step further in commissioning David Boller, a graphic artist with credits on X Men, Batman and Spiderman to his name to draw a superhero styled version of Murray in the kit in front of a collage of London landmarks.
That ad now features on billboards across the city. the only problem is that Murray’s appearance at Queen’s was only the briefest of Cameo going down in two straight sets yesterday to an Australian player who only made it into the tournament yesterday morning when Murray’s intended first round opponent withdrew with an injury.
Given that Wimbledon still maintains an all white policy the Under Armour team have not got much bang for their mega bucks idea. That’s the nature of sport.
I guess there’s always next year however and with the BBC signing up to cover the Championships through to 2024 at least there will be that.
And sometimes Super Hero powers do take time to make an impact. Connacht Rugby wore a superhero design kit from BLK which was sold to fans from December 2015 and later that season they went on to lift the Guinness Pro 12 title.
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Find out more about our next major event looking at the impact of Sport for Social Good in September 2017.
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