Brands are dogpiling on England’s embarrassing Euro 2016 exit

By Digiday • June 28, 2016 •

Female football player standing with her feet on ball

England’s bad luck just got worse, and the internet is loving it.

The country had a surprise exit from the Euro 2016 tournament last night after losing 2-1 to outsiders Iceland. The game has already been branded as the “most humiliating” night in English football, namely because it pitted Iceland’s part-time players against England’s well-paid Premiership stars.

Twitter, as always, was quick to react with schadenfreude-heavy memes. And a number of brands got in on the action too.

Smoothie maker Innocent drinks, which is owned by McDonalds, took a swipe at the team after Iceland secured their one goal lead.

We don’t claim to be football experts, but we think it might be a nice idea to maybe try and score a goal sometime soon #ENGICE

— innocent drinks (@innocent) June 27, 2016

Meanwhile, bookmaker Ladbrokes received over 280 shares for a similarly sarcastic line of thought.

Some fantastic finishing from #ENG tonight #ENGICE pic.twitter.com/5GOzMeifnG

— Ladbrokes (@Ladbrokes) June 27, 2016

Betting site Paddy Power, the brand that sent a “banter” van to Russia ahead of their match against England, likened the team’s homeward journey to the country’s current bad weather.

With the #Eng team due to return home today, the forecast doesn’t look good either… pic.twitter.com/4xIrSVJUbB

— Paddy Power (@paddypower) June 28, 2016

Fashion retailer Asos got a little flirty wtith player Birkir Bjarnason that he should join the ranks of its male models. It may yet happen.

Hey @bbjarnason8, when you’re done with #Euros2016 give us a call… we could use you on the ASOS catwalk 👌 #ENGICE pic.twitter.com/Rbgn2gZn1b

— ASOS (@ASOS) June 27, 2016

Frozen food retailer Iceland Foods, who sponsors the Icelandic team, scored a viral hit with it’s “impartial” commentary on the defeat.

Unexpected result in the bagging area…

— Iceland Foods (@IcelandFoods) June 27, 2016

Social media manager Andy Thompson said the reaction on Twitter has been “a bit bonkers.”

The supermarket looked into creating football-themed content after receiving tongue-in-cheek tweets from users congratulating the brand on its success in the qualifying stages of the tournament.

The brand has since created 13 Euro 2016-themed videos with Iceland’s football team on Twitter and provided live commentary on games as they unfold.

“While our competitors are going big on food deals, we can’t afford to compete. So rather than ‘out shout’ we chose to ‘out engage’ them,” Thompson said.