Marketing Birmingham have signed an advertising deal with Blues and Villa to promote visitbirmingham.com on advertising hoardings and the like. That’s a sensible move, scenes from Villa Park and St Andrews must be the most often televised nationally (and internationally in Villa’s case) from Brum (plus there’s always the chance of something really newsworthy happening in front of one of the boards — remember the parachuting santa?).
Of course there’s always the “visit Birmingham for three easy points” thing, but at least the message is out there.
The Evening Mail’s coverage was somewhat bizarre however: “FOOTBALL clubs Aston Villa and Blues have put their rivalries to one side for the sake of the city to sign a joint £1.4 million sponsorship deal to give Birmingham a massive global boost.”
Leaving aside that they felt the need to explain that Villa and Blues were football clubs, in what way could the two companies be said to be “put[ting] their rivalries to one side”?. By accepting advertising deals from the same company?
“The Sun and The Mirror put their rivalries to one side and both ran adverts for Dixons.” Nonsense.
