As we’ve already documented today in our unparalleled 2014 FIFA World Cup coverage, soccer fans like to drink while they watch their countries play. I know, groundbreaking stuff right there, but according to the fine folks at the London Fire Brigade, it’s not always fun and (very drunken) games. That’s why they’ve created the #TakeawayWorldCup campaign to encourage drunk and hungry soccer fans in England to stop for a bite to eat on their ways home, or to order delivery if they get drunk in their own houses, because otherwise they might burn their places to the ground. We can mock all we want, but apparently drunk arson is alive and well in England during the World Cup.
The stats don’t lie, and the 2010 World Cup proved that watching soccer, getting hammered and passing out while making food in the kitchen is no way to go through life, guvna.
2 – Two fires a day happen after Londoners have been drinking.
1 in 4 – A quarter of people who die in a fire have alcohol in their system
56% – The most often cause of fires, where alcohol is a suspected factor, is falling asleep (56 per cent).
20 – During the 2010 football World Cup there were 620 house fires – approximately 20 a day. (Via the London Fire Brigade)
So what’s the solution then? Well, today the LFB awarded five lucky Twitter followers with a £20 Just Eat voucher, so soccer fans could score some free grub. “That’s great,” replied the five people who won, but what about the other tens of thousands of drunks who will still go home and think that a pot roast sounds like a splendid idea? They’ll have to settle for these Twitter warnings, and that is already clearly not going well.
For example, here’s a Tweet that encourages safety with this #TakeawayWorldCup contest:
And here’s a rather cheeky response:
Again, more educational awareness and support for the encouragement of public safety and well-being:
Annnnnnnd more smart-assery:
More education and fire prevention:
Wise-crackery, tomfoolery, nincompoopery, etc., etc.
When in doubt, get as graphic as possible without actually showing someone charred to his recliner.
But then you’ll probably still hear from the most common of all Internet folk, the lady who this doesn’t apply to because she hates everything anyway.
Haha, oh Clare, you make the job of social media marketing such an uphill battle.