Steve Elliott, technical manager at Progress from Royal Liver wonders if there is any mileage in the Cup for his industry.
It could be me but given recent (sadly) failed attempts to drum up support for the various protection initiatives, I can't help feeling envious of other industries ability to ride in on the coattails of sporting events like the world cup.
I sit here in my car (resplendent with car flags from sports direct, JJB sports14 newspapers, 6 cereal suppliers and one I picked up from the road) crossing my fingers while eating my England KitKat and drinking from my England thermos flask, as I contemplate my England air fresheners courtesy of Halfords, shell etc etc) - you get the picture.
Yes ‘over 40 years of hurt' means every 4 years an explosion of national fervour (unless you're Scottish!!), while marketing departments all over the country work on ways to get the football theme into their product. The latest and best (and I use this word loosely since I detest this advert with a vengeance) is "we buy any car.com" -
where the blonde presenter whips off her glasses quicker than a liberal democrat deciding he is in fact a Tory - to juggle a football with Brazilian like expertise.
Now if only we could harness this incredible outpouring to the protection cause. I mean its not that hard surely, the sight of a free kick smashing into ‘the wall' or a player's nether regions could be nicely joined with a tag line about permanent disability, great puns about protection plans being the best form of defence against certain problems could be bandied about right (wing), left (wing) and centre (back) - yes I know I am showing my age with that one).
We could produce car flags so happy punters (whoops my pre FSA sales days coming out there) could proudly show they have not only life cover but income protection and critical illness cover to boot (see what I did there, another football pun worked in).
We could run ‘fantasy' football type competitions around league tables of illness, cancers , survival rates with a trip to South Africa thrown in - no world cup games but to see the birthplace of Christian Barnard (carried out the first ever heart transplant for those wondering?) and critical illness is reward in itself.
I could go on but you get the point - the public are a funny bunch at the best and worst of times. Something which in the grand scheme of things is relatively unimportant generates mass activity and almost hysteria, while real life problems and issues facing the very same people day in and day out are roundly ignored.
Am I worried about a loss of income following an illness or accident - not really. The only CIC I am interested in at the moment is Wayne Rooney's left foot and I am more worried about when I will get round to painting a flag of St George on my house roof using the paint and brushes I bought because you got a free England cool box with them!
