PDF (840 KB) - Dentsu

Preface - Dentsu A Name that Runs through Football HistoryAnd a festival is precisely what it was. In my roleas adviser to the 2002 FIFA World Cup Japan OrganisingCommittee (JAWOC), I chaperoned important guests fromaround the world who were visiting Japan for the event.Wherever I went, I was bowled over by the general level ofexcitement: in the subways, bullet trains and shuttle busesafter every match, you could see the fans from different countrieschatting and making friends with one another, and whenthe Japan team scored, spontaneous happy crowds would formin the streets up and down the country; no doubt the same wastrue for all the other participating nations too. The co-hostedWorld Cup gave me the chance to re-experience the truththat “football is the ultimate media”—a favourite saying ofHaruyuki Takahashi, a colleague of mine at Dentsu for whomI have the greatest respect. The World Cup is a festival thatunites the world through the message of football. I neededto be reminded of that unshakeable truth. Even now, wheneverI hear the nineteenth-century Italian composer Verdi’striumphal march from Aida—the official music for the Japannational team in 2002—the memories and emotions of thetime flood vividly back and I find myself waxing nostalgic.5