Who Are These Kids??
Soccer teams walk out for matches hand-in-hand with youngsters. Where do these player escorts come from?
The FIFA anthem plays, the referee snatches the ball off the stand, and after players shout one last encouraging word, they grab the hand of a child and walk out to sing their national anthems. The theater prior to a World Cup match has become standardized, but who are those kids?
“I’ve seen those kids before,” says Cintia Mindes, a Utah mother who grew up a soccer fan in Brazil. “But in my idea, in my head, I thought they would be like the players’ kids. I never thought it would be just random kids.” At least one kid won’t be random for Mindes this year. Her daughter, Abigail, was selected as one of 26 American children who will walk out of the tunnel with soccer stars.
Children walking hand-in-hand with soccer players has become so ubiquitous in the sport, ESPN immortalized it in a recent SportsCenter advertisement.
“Walking hand-in-hand with one of America’s best soccer players? It’s something that he’ll never forget,” says anchor Bram Weinstein as Michael Bradley is shown having his disinterested child assist with making copies and hold his coffee while he uses the restroom.
In true SportsCenter style, it’s a tongue-in-cheek ad, but giving children the experience is something McDonald’s has taken very seriously since taking over FIFA’s World Cup program in 2002. That year’s World Cup in South Korea and Japan was the first to see the youngsters — or player escorts, as they’re dubbed in official parlance — walk onto the pitch with the players. They’ve been around for longer than that, though. Player escorts appeared at the 2000 European Championship, and pictures of children on the field with players before other matches appear well before that.
So while the children have been involved for more than a decade, “we took it to another level and started building other programs that weren’t about just going on the field and started getting local markets involved and just blowing it out bigger than that. Not to say that [being on the field] in itself isn’t great,” says Georgina Roy, McDonald’s Director Customer Engagement & Alliances.
The process varies by country, but in the U.S., children’s families enter a contest, with the lucky winners headed to Brazil. In addition to the trip along with one parent/guardian, and entering the field with the players, McDonald’s donates $1,000 to a local soccer organization of the family’s choice. While in Brazil, the children get to meet other children in the program, play in soccer matches of their own, and have free time among other activities.
This year’s on-field kits are a little less overt as McDonald’s ads than previous campaigns. Still, while the kids are getting an experience they’ll never forget, they’re also turned into cute, walking advertisements, says soccer writer Zac Lee Rigg.
“Do I find it odd? Yes. I also find it repulsive,” he says. “There are several different ways to look at this. The first is from perspective of the teams and organizations. [McDonald’s] pays the most to put symbols on the shirt, so you let them. I’m aware of capitalism and how that works, so that makes sense to me. I mean, it’s odd to pair athletes with products that destroy human bodies, like fast food and Coke, but the logic of selling the ad space is sound.
“I’m also sympathetic to McDonald’s. You have a product that hurts people’s health. So where do you advertise it? Next to the healthiest people in the world, obviously. That’s just shrewd marketing.”
McDonald’s certainly isn’t the only player in the player escort game. In the U.S., Home Depot outfitted the children which walked out with the Mexican team on its international tour, and other countries have similar arrangements. But in addition to the World Cup deal, McDonald’s is also a long-time partner with U.S. Soccer — something that extends to the player escort program.
“McDonald’s has been a great partner and an active supporter of soccer at all levels for many years,” Sunil Gualti, U.S. Soccer president, said in a news release. “Through our partnership, we have strengthened the soccer community at the grassroots level by hosting youth soccer clinics and enhanced the fan experience for supporters of both the Men’s and Women’s National Teams. McDonald’s continued support and gift of grants to youth organizations will help us further our goal of growing the game in the U.S.”
The idea of children participating in introductions has filtered through to other sports, as well. Player escorts have been present for the anthems at previous NHL All-Star games, although that program was halted by the lack of All-Star Games in 2013 (lockout)and 2014 (Winter Olympics). They should return for the 2015 game in Columbus, Roy said. She’s still trying to figure out logistics for McDonald’s other partners, which include NASCAR. For now, soccer is the easiest.
“The secret to soccer players is that they’re average-sized in person, probably even a touch smaller than you, gentle reader. So when you put them next to a child, the sizing fits alright,” says Rigg. “But children are adorable. Perhaps the NBA could send players out each holding a pug puppy with a big red bow. And NHL teams could skate out carrying baskets full of kittens. This seems like a preferable world to the one we live in.”
Perhaps, but Roy sees merit in the current situation as well.
“When I look at these kids’ faces — and I was in New York at the fan appreciation event, and we had three of the kids in New York wishing the U.S. Soccer team ‘bon voyage’ — you just can’t articulate the joy that these kids and their parents have, and how proud their parents are,” Roy says. “When I see the parents’ faces when the kids are going out onto the field, it’s a moment that … that’s why I get up in the morning, to feel good about stuff like that.”
Abigail Mindes is plenty excited. She said she watched the opening game with a keen eye toward the children walking out, ready for her own turn in the same role.
@ArnoldcommaJon is an editor for @GoalUSA.
