Well, I guess this just straight up sucks for Beats Music. Beats By Dre drops a bunch of epic commercials for the World Cup and creates an entire campaign around the legendary world soccer competition and what does the audio product manufacturer get in return? Banned from the World Cup.
FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, has a licensing deal with Sony, which prohibits any player from wearing Beats By Dre headphones on the sidelines of World Cup matches and media events. With Beats Music being a direct competitor of Sony, the demand makes total sense. This is probably something the people at Beats should have been aware of, but I still applaud the audio product maker for its marketing efforts. Rappers Jay Z, Lil Wayne, and Nicki Minaj have participated in some fashion in the recent “ The Game Before The Game” campaign. What makes this demand by Sony kind of awkward is the fact that World Cup star players Neymar Jr, Luis Suárez, and Chicharito have all been pictured with Beats headphones leading up to the World Cup.
FIFA may want to reconsider their licensing deal. Maybe this was Beats indirect attempt to take Sony down. Let’s see in four years if Sony still has this deal with FIFA. I’m going out on a limb here, but don’t be surprised if you see Beats By Dre headphones on the sidelines of the next World Cup.
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