After a disappointing 2007, the UK (albeit ably assisted by a certain Argentinian) gave a good showing at Cannes this year. We were, however, conspicuous by our absence in another European theatre in the month of June. Yes, Euro 2008 seemed to go off quite well without the involvement of any teams from our fair isle. Obviously, being the bad sports we all are, many of us paid little attention whilst the hills were alive with the sound of football in Austria and Switzerland - we had more important major sporting events to concentrate on in the month that traditionally comes halfway through the year...like the World Nettle Eating Championships in Dorset. However, being professional types here at The Reel, we put our bitterness aside (that's what eating nettles will do to you) and congratulate Spain (they did beat the Germans after all) and not only applaud the great football they played to win the tournament, but also take a look at a couple of timely spots featuring hero of the final Fernando Torres.
Seeing yourself turn into something resembling Iron Man and taking down some serious mechanical bad guys with minimal effort can only do wonders for your confidence, and it seems that someone must have shown this stunning spot for Spanish TV channel Cuatro to Fernando Torres before last week's final, as he had arguably his best game and lifted a sublime winner over a hapless Jens Lehmann.
When the rather flash new silver ball made the grumpy former Arsenal goalkeeper's net billow, cheers went up across England (we don't really need an excuse to cheer a goal against Germany) but the noise must have been particularly loud in Liverpool (the red half anyway) as their 33 goal top scorer, and favourite of their adopted Spanish sons, was the goalscorer. Someone at Nike must have got a big pat on the back for their foresight, as Torres features in the most recent ad in the already award-winning 'Next Level' campaign. Lucky they didn't pick Wayne Rooney, we can just see it now...'smoking cigarettes and drinking pints is Next Level.'
No feature containing any reference to England, Germany, Spain, the European Championships and adverts would be complete without mentioning what happened in Euro '96 - England actually beat Spain, but (as usual) lost to Germany, in the semis; we didn't have a hero like Torres, we had Gareth Southgate, and he made an advert too...football's come a long way!
Seeing yourself turn into something resembling Iron Man and taking down some serious mechanical bad guys with minimal effort can only do wonders for your confidence, and it seems that someone must have shown this stunning spot for Spanish TV channel Cuatro to Fernando Torres before last week's final, as he had arguably his best game and lifted a sublime winner over a hapless Jens Lehmann.
When the rather flash new silver ball made the grumpy former Arsenal goalkeeper's net billow, cheers went up across England (we don't really need an excuse to cheer a goal against Germany) but the noise must have been particularly loud in Liverpool (the red half anyway) as their 33 goal top scorer, and favourite of their adopted Spanish sons, was the goalscorer. Someone at Nike must have got a big pat on the back for their foresight, as Torres features in the most recent ad in the already award-winning 'Next Level' campaign. Lucky they didn't pick Wayne Rooney, we can just see it now...'smoking cigarettes and drinking pints is Next Level.'
No feature containing any reference to England, Germany, Spain, the European Championships and adverts would be complete without mentioning what happened in Euro '96 - England actually beat Spain, but (as usual) lost to Germany, in the semis; we didn't have a hero like Torres, we had Gareth Southgate, and he made an advert too...football's come a long way!
