The World Cup gives a boost to businesses around the globe in many different forms by generating employment and lots of sales of all kinds of accessories world-cup related. Not to mention the number of journalists, photographers, cameramen, all kinds of professionals involved in the millionaire-deal broadcasting industry of this worldwide event that mobilizes millions of fans everywhere.

One of the businesses that heavily invests in financial return in a very timely manner is the advertisement world. In Brazil, the theme of the moment is heavily used in every single commercial, brochure, banner, billboard throughout the country. Big sports names like Nike, Adidas, Coke, Pepsi, explore master soccer moves and swing of the best players in the world.

This Pepsi ad is an example of mixing culture aspects of this world cup in Africa with fans and their love for soccer. And, of course, the underlying message of the drink they sell. Anyhow, a great commercial worth watching. Kaká, one of our best players known all over the world, is one of the commercial’s stars:

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Photo: La Nacion - Cancha Llena

Today’s match against Nigeria began at 11 am, Buenos Aires time. My mum, my sister and I were chit-chatting in the kitchen over cups of coffee and rounds of mate when we heard honking, wild cheering and even firecrackers. We’d missed the beginning of the match and Gabriel Heinze’s goal 6 minutes into the game. That was fast! (more…)

The easiest way to know a country better is by looking at the meaning of its flag.

On June 12, my country will celebrate its 112th year of independence.

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Doctors at emergency rooms around the world are getting ready for the onslaught of heart attacks and other heart-related maladies. Who’s to blame? The World Cup!

The British Heart Foundation posted on their website a series of easy-to-follow tips that will help you keep your heart healthy. Some of the tips are watching the matches with friends and family, staying below the maximum recommended alcohol units (ahem!), or giving up smoking.

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Some count the days, hours, minutes. I guess I know how close the World Cup is in Brazil by the blooming green and yellow colors in every single corner on the streets of my hometown, Brasilia.

The green-yellow commerce is super heated. The once unemployed population becomes street vendors selling all kinds of souvenirs that remind us of what we are about to watch. Only a few days for Brazil to star. A time of the year we forget poverty, we forget how gloomy our future might look. Some say it is like opium, mainly in the year of our presidential elections. However, we simply forget all about our ordinary lives.

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If you look up, down, to any side, the colors yellow, green and blue are everywhere. Every four years, at this time of the year, my country, Brazil, stops.

Everybody seems to be a soccer expert, opinionated, know-it-all coaches. Fashion means wearing the colors of our Brazilian flag. There is no way out, the world cup is in the air. We breathe it, we feel it, we dress it, we live this moment as if it were the most decisive time of our lives. For sure, that it is for our Brazilian coach, Dunga, and for all our soccer players. However, the World Cup is so big for all that even the ones who don’t like soccer wouldn’t dare saying anything against it in June, every four years.

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Closer to Taipei than Tokyo, Okinawa is a chain of islands stretching from Taiwan to Kyushu. Once an independent nation, known as the Ryukyu Kingdom, it prospered as a natural sea lane between China, Japan and all of Southeast Asia and the influences of these cultures are evident today. (more…)