The two players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, appeared in an image representing the struggle of the titans, as they gathered between them staring at the chessboard on the roof of a suitcase and saying: Who will defeat the other in a journey of no return?
The two stars did not actually sit together to take this picture, but rather a picture was taken of each of them in a separate place and perhaps at a separate time to promote a very famous French leather brand, “Louis Vuitton”, which made a bag with a chessboard that combines Messi and Ronaldo, as she wanted this The high-end brand is to announce its merchandise in an exceptional opportunity, which is the start of the World Cup in Qatar, so it chose the giants of the era.
As for the characteristics of the chess stones, they were chosen very carefully to make the two stars in a tie position and not defeat each other, and it is a copy of the most famous chess game between two champions: Norwegian Magnus Carlsen and American Hikaru Nakamura, which ended in a draw in 2017.
Ronaldo commented in a press conference in Doha on his confrontation with Messi in the game of chess, saying that he wanted to be the one who gives the "checkmate" movement to Messi, and it would be something special for this to happen in the football game, as is the case with chess.
How much did each of them get paid to post this picture?
Regarding the financial return of this advertisement, it is indicated that Ronaldo receives an amount of two million and 400 thousand dollars per post on Instagram, while Messi receives approximately one million and 700 thousand dollars.
By simple calculation, the total amount paid to both stars exceeds 4 million dollars, meaning that the total cost of advertising the company exceeded 5 million dollars, but the amount of 5 million dollars to promote an advertisement for "Louis Vuitton" is not much, as this advertisement on the page of the star without exceeding 38 million likes, The same ad on Lionel Messi's Instagram page exceeded 29 million likes, a total of 67 million interactions on Instagram alone.
Platform interaction
I followed the episode (11/22/2022) of the “Shabakat” program, the interaction of the pioneers of the communication platforms with this advertisement, where the activist Iman wrote, “Okay, the most important thing is that the truth came out, and everyone was disappointed by the picture alone, not with each other. Praise be to God, I was relieved psychologically.”
Tweeter Mohamed Khaled expressed the comparison between Messi and Ronaldo because they are from the same generation, and he said, "Your analysis is the money of the best in his era and the best in history, like the predecessor of his face before: the egg if (or) the chicken, because they are in the same era."
Regarding the arrangement of the chess pieces, activist Asma Rahmouni commented, "Even the chessboard and the playing pieces in the picture are aligned with the result of a tie."
As for the activist Thaer Al-Droubi, his comment revolved around the financial benefit that these players reap, and he wrote, "The Arab people are now insulting one member, and each one is paralyzing the other's offer for the sake of a dragon holding handfuls of dollars."
And there are those who saw that the comparison between them is primarily based on media exaggeration, as the activist Ahmed Al-Ghazali wrote, “It is just a competition between the best in the past years, the touch (conflict) between fanatics and lovers of Cristiano or Messi, and the competition is in the stadium between them only, the amplification is from the media and the audience ".