Time for another order of Trippant Takeaways: football flight plans, the two sides of Gianni Infantino, AI image giveaways, vodka sauce and breakdancing all feature in our latest roundup of stories on communications trends in sport, tech, entertainment and culture.
The BBC on the Premier League’s short-haul addiction
For football clubs on social media, snaps of first-team players giving the thumbs-up from a plane seat have become a staple of away day content. Yet in the Premier League, the eagle-eyed have noticed more and more of these images appearing for domestic games.
England, it turns out, is not a big country so the BBC has investigated the use of in-country air travel and found some extraordinary details. In 100 games over two months, it found 81 involved plane journeys — the shortest of which was 27 minutes long.
Is it really an option Premier League sides need to use? And how does it square with their sustainability initiatives elsewhere?
The Guardian on Arsenal’s BSL breakthrough
Still, back on the ground, those teams do often work hard to be more socially responsible.
League leaders Arsenal have introduced British Sign Language messaging around their Emirates Stadium home on matchdays to better include hearing-impaired fans in the action.
The Athletic on club football’s international naming muddle
Last week at the same venue, the Gunners were knocked out of the Uefa Europa League on penalties by Sporting Lisbon.
Except, as the visiting side will point out, they weren’t — they lost to Sporting Clube de Portugal. Translated names for football clubs have circulated for decades but with media consumption more internationalised, many are restating their original identities.
Mother Jones on the two reputations of Gianni Infantino
Last week in Kigali, Rwanda, Gianni Infantino was re-elected unopposed as Fifa president — and then appeared to make a link between his initial campaign for the post and the African nation’s recovery from genocide.
It all encapsulated the dual narrative around the Swiss, inside and outside world football’s governing body. His public profile is weighed down by his handling of debates around social issues and the future of the game, as well as his relationships with authoritarian governments. Last week also brought a climbdown from plans to have Visit Saudi sponsor this year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Yet he remains widely popular among Fifa members, having managed the organisation’s internal political dynamics with skill and intent…
Wired on Donald Trump and spotting faked AI images
At the time of writing, the world is still waiting to see if Donald J Trump becomes the first US president ever to be indicted of a crime — the 45th POTUS having speculated that he would be arrested on Tuesday.
In the meantime, online creators have been using AI-based tools like Midjourney to generate some visual aids for that historic potential event. They may be for entertainment purposes only but their efforts provide a useful guide in what to look out for when identifying artificially made ‘photographs’.
Fast Company on the Gen Z palette
Branding and design have been trying on brighter, bolder colours in the past couple of years, with a refreshed look that has ‘one foot in techno-nostalgia and another in the aesthetics of the current digital world’.
It’s partly down to Gen Z tastes but there are many other influences converging.
AdWeek on a saucy product launch
Depending on who you ask, pasta alla vodka has its origins in the 1970s or 1980s but it shot back to prominence in 2020, with model Gigi Hadid trying out the recipe on TikTok.
Now Heinz has teamed up with Absolut vodka to launch a bottled version of the sauce, blending their brands with a campaign that draws on an unlikely shared history.
The BBC on the birth of a new Olympic sport
Next year, at Paris 2024, the Olympic sporting programme will take on a new dimension as breaking makes its debut as a medal event.
It is the latest remarkable chapter in a 40-year story of street dance, gang truces and a music culture that took over the world.
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