Strange but True: Neymar branded cocaine capsules found in São Paulo

What happened yesterday is something to rival any of the other oddities that we like to post from time to time.

The arrest of a male suspect as part of an early morning drug haul in São Vicente, coastal São Paulo. Nothing uncommon in that. But this particular stash of cocaine was divided into handy easy to use capsules complete with nozzles and branded "Neymar". Yes, Neymar.

When questioned by police over the use of Neymar's image and the accompanying slogan "Boas Festas", the man explained that it served to highlight the product is of the highest quality.

Someone has been studying marketing..

A police picture of the offending capsules

Corinthians football club launches an official funeral service

It's not the first time Corinthians has had a mention on this blog but neither is it every day that a football club launches a funeral service. 

Capitalising on its huge and often fanatical following, Corinthians has decided to team up with funeral service company Memorial to come up with a package complete with branded coffin, official wreath in club colours as well as the playing of the club anthem at the memorial service.

Under the deal the São Paulo football club pockets 7% of the proceeds of every funeral service sold.

If you're interested you can book your funeral here: http://www.corinthiansparasempre.com.br/

Corinthians launch a blood-stained replica shirt

Corinthians, the biggest club in São Paulo by some margin, is well known for the 'to the death' loyalty and radicalism of its fan base. Similarly the players perceived to give most for the shirt are the ones that go down as legendarily Corinthiano.

In these stakes few surpass Zé Maria who in 1979 literally bled for the club as he played through a game against Ponte Preta despite a shirt soaked with blood from a facial injury suffered during the game.

Zé Maria and his 1979 blood stained shirt

No surprise then that fans with a long memory and longstanding commitment to Corinthians were delighted to see official homage being paid to Zé Maria last week. Bizarrely for anyone without the context, a giant blood stained shirt was unfurled before the game in São Paulo last Wednesday,

Giant version of Ze Maria's blood soaked shirt unveiled in the Pacaembu stadium

And if that wasn't enough it was announced this week that an official Corinthians replica shirt will be created complete with blood stain so fans can wear their very own Camisa Sangrenta and the man who bled for the club can be eternalised or at least his image can be merchandised by the club's marketing department.

The new advert for São Paulo's amusement park (Hopi Hari)

Hopi Hari is a fictional country located 80km outside of São Paulo. In reality it's just a theme park, the only "residents" or "Hopius" being the amusement park employees who presumably are fluent in Hopês (Hopi Harian language). However it somewhat incredibly attracts 5 million visitors a year which is more than the Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugar Loaf mountain put together!

Inside Hopi Hari land you'll find delights such as the Klapi Klapi, the Rio Bravo, the Bili Bili as well as the Eiffel Tower ride (out of which someone actually fell and died earlier this year so you might want to think twice about this one). But the star of the show is the new Montezum which is billed as the largest rollercoaster in Latin America.

Below is its new advertising campaign aimed at getting you to confront your fears:

I thought the frightened fish was a cute metaphor for a sushi-mad Paulistano public. Well done Young and Rubicam.

Post-It Animation: Melissa Power of Love

As a follow-up to my previous post on Melissa's 500,000 post-it façade on Oscar Freire street (link) here's an impressive animation the Melissa guys did as part of the same project:

Someone invested a lot of patience into this project..

12th June, Valentines Day & the mother of all marketing coups

Today is the 13th June which is Santo António's day. He was associated with marriage and that's why yesterday was Valentine's day or dia dos namorados here in Brazil.

Previous to 1949 there was no such day in Brasil but the marketeer and shopkeeper João Dória decided that creating a Valentines Day similar to that which is celebrated in the Northern hemisphere would be a good way of generating business in an otherwise dull month of June (Brazilian winter). Santo António was the perfect excuse so he decided the day before would be dia dos namorados.

Th eoriginal message Dória put on his shop window was. “Não é só de beijos que se prova o amor” (You don't show your love only through kisses) i.e. Buy, buy, buy which is exactly what happens nowadays and the 12th June is now the 3rd best day for Brazilian commerce only behind Christmas and Mother's Day

So when people complain that dia dos namorados is all too commercial these days, that's not completely true. It was never anything else but a clever marketing ploy to boost winter sales in June.. and it works, this year sales were up 8,6% against the same day last year and 6% in São Paulo!