Where The Vuvuzelas Have No Name

Finally, just one month to go until the 2010 World Cup kicks off in South Africa.

Thirty more days for ESPN properties to continually trumpet the impending arrival of FIFA’s famed futbol festival. Another month for the worldwide leader’s well-crafted promos, backed by Bono and U2’s Magnificent and Where The Streets Have No Names, to blare about how one match changes everything.

And we haven’t even heard the vuvuzelas yet. These plastic, trumpet-like instruments, which shout South African futbol, were unleashed during the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. They are loud and apparently distracting to spectators and players alike. Europeans making the trek last June for the warm-up competition want them banned from next month’s real proceedings. Last December, ESPN officials bestowed them as gifts to the journalists who gathered in Bristol on the day the World Cup draw was announced.

Now, it’s my turn to give back and I don’t even want a cut. Just the satisfaction that I could be part of the action from Africa and America. I want The Edge and Bono to blow their own vuvuzelas to further tout the World Cup, as U2 will be out West with the resumption of its 360 Tour, playing in Invesco Field in Denver on June 12, when the U.S. meets up with England in the contest that could give the winner a huge leg up in Group C.

Just think of the merchandising opportunities. World Cup highlights on the screens surrounding the band’s massive stage, followed by the boys blowing hard through the plastic instruments. And then a promo for U2/ESPN-logoed vuvuzelas — the perfect musical souvenir, for fans of the world’s band and the world’s game.