Duggee V the World Cup PR machine
As the World Cup is finally underway and we await the inevitable disappointment in our national team, the official anthem is resounding around Russian stadiums and blaring out of our TV screens on repeat.
‘Live it Up’ comes with the musical clout of Hollywood legend and one-time rap star Will Smith, who shares the mike with Albanian Kosovar singer Era Istrefi and Puerto Rican born Nicky Jam – none of whose home countries is fielding a team in the tournament incidentally.
The anthem has the might of the World Cup publicity team behind it, but rumours abound that it might just be upstaged – by CBeebies star Duggee the dog.
CBeebies has played a blinder by releasing its own World Cup homage based on the Hey Duggee Stick Song which, depending on your musical tastes and mental state, is either a delightfully chirpy singalong for pre-schoolers or a sanity-testing ear-bleed.
The Hey Duggee Kick Song – sample lyric kick, kick, kick, kick – is gaining traction as an outlier that might just prove more popular than the official anthem. And more importantly it is proving to be a brilliant PR machine for a programme that most us in the office had never previously heard of!
YouTube hits suggest that Smith and co’s Live it Up (around 32m views) has the edge over Duggee and pals (around 249,000 views) at this stage…but there’s no accounting for what might happen when several thousand soccer fans have had a pint or two before a match…
