Chilean Miners Appear in New World Cup Commercial
You don't need to be fluent in Spanish in order for this new ad released in Chile in preparation for the World Cup to make you feel a certain something.
Released for Banco de Chile, the commercial is entitled "Nothing is impossible for a Chilean" and features Mario Sepulveda, one of the miners who made world headlines while being trapped underground for 69 days, delivering an impassioned speech to the country's national soccer team leading up to the World Cup.
"My message to our Chile team is that we're going to win. They have the talent and a whole country behind them and they must battle until the end," Sepulveda told The Associated Press. "There are harder things in life and you can conquer them. Chile will not only pass to the second round, but it will surprise everyone."
Chile, which is currently listed as a 40/1 long shot to win the tournament, may very well gather inspiration from the commercial but perhaps it's a bit much to compare the experience of the miners to the type of luck the team will need to perform well in the tournament. Drawing inspiration from past historical events is a common trope in sports, but I worry that doing so in some cases can cause a loss of context. Chile's soccer team indeed has the odds stacked against them in the 2014 World Cup, but the stakes are not nearly as high as they were during the mining incident. All that being said, the men in this commercial made the decision to use their experiences to motivate the team, and I can respect that.
Follow Extra Mustard and Dan Treadway on Twitter.
