Walking the streets of any major European capital, you’d be forgiven if you’d forgotten that there’s a soccer World Cup starting in two days. Typically, ahead of the globe’s biggest sporting event — the official kick-off is Sunday, Nov. 20 in Doha — every main street on this soccer-mad continent would be plastered with billboards, and every TV commercial break packed with World Cup ads.
This time, it’s different.
Controversy over the decision to host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a country with a troubling human rights record, where homosexuality is still illegal, hangs over this year’s event.
“We note that major advertisers’ interest in using the World Cup to promote their brands seems muted compared to previous tournaments,” Enders Analysis analysts Tom Harrington and Gill Hind wrote in a recent report. Asked about the…
