Team UNICEF takes to the football pitch in a new television campaign

18 May 2006

By David Koch

NEW YORK, USA, – UNICEF launched a new set of dynamic public service announcements today: ‘Superfans’.

MTV International in London produced the television spots to support UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE FOR PEACE, the UNICEF-FIFA campaign for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany. FIFA is the global governing body of professional football.


Fifteen world-famous players from 15 World Cup countries came together in a virtual ’Team UNICEF’ and pledged their support to help promote a more peaceful, nonviolent world. MTV embarked on an epic, month-long, worldwide shoot to capture these elite players and solidify their support for children.

“It makes perfect sense that these three dynamic partners – FIFA, UNICEF and MTV – would come together to produce a compelling and exciting campaign for the world’s biggest sporting event, to raise awareness about the power of football to create a better world for children,” said UNICEF’s Sport for Development Officer, Alison Qualter-Berna.

A winning roster

The ‘Team UNICEF’ roster includes: David Beckham (England), captain and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador; Emmanuel Abedayor (Togo); Christoph Metzelder (Germany); Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire); Thierry Henry (France); Tim Howard (USA); Rafael Marquez (Mexico); Lionel Messi (Argentina); Hidetoshi Nakata (Japan); Ji-Sung Park (Korea); Edwin Tenorio (Ecuador); Francesco Totti (Italy); Edwin van der Sar (Holland); Paolo Wanchope (Costa Rica); and Dwight Yorke (Trinidad).

’Superfans’ brings these players together with young football players in a series of unexpected vignettes. As sport transcends language, there is no script in the traditional sense…but football, the game, speaks louder than words.

MTV International’s Vice President for Public Affairs, Georgia Arnold, said of the campaign, “When we spoke to UNICEF we said it would be great if we could use our creativity and help UNICEF with their amazing line-up of talent and see if we could match the two together.”

UNICEF cameras also went behind the scenes on several ‘Superfans’ shoots to capture the energy and excitement of the professionals and young players involved in the campaign and upcoming World Cup, the world’s largest sporting event.

The PSAs will be shown to hundreds of thousands of football fans before each of the 64 matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany this summer.

Note to broadcasters:

The 30- and 90-second PSAs are available rights-free to broadcasters through www.thenewsmarket.com/unicef in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish and international versions. The PSAs are accompanied by video footage providing a behind-the-scenes look at how the spots were made. They will also be broadcast globally on MTV International, Nickelodeon and VH-1.

Contact Information

Jehane Sedky

Media Chief

UNICEF

Contact via E-mail