He may not have realized it at the time, but when Barcelona defender Dani Alves reacted to an abhorrent act of racism by eating a banana that was thrown at him by someone in the crowd during a recent match against Villarreal, the Brazilian right-back put a global anti-racism campaign into motion.
According to a report from Spanish daily AS, the campaign to speak out against the discrimination that has long plagued the sport was actually planned well in advance.
The newspaper reports that the banana incident just happened to fall in line with a social media campaign that stemmed from an incident in late March, which saw both Alves and Barcelona teammate Neymar subjected to racial abuse during a match against Espanyol.
ESPN FC has more details:
...a group of marketing firms were asked to develop a campaign which could draw attention to an issue which has blighted Spanish football for years.
Alves did not know the banana would be thrown onto the pitch at Villarreal on Sunday, however, he and Neymar had decided that if an incident occurred, one of them would make sure to eat the fruit on camera. That moment could then be used to kick-start a social media campaign, with professional backing already in place to help ensure maximum impact.
In the aftermath of the incident, a multitude of players have joined in solidarity, posting photos to their respective social media sites that show them eating a banana, accompanied by the hashtag, "We Are All Monkeys."
Neymar was the first to do so, and was followed by the likes of Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli and Luis Suarez.
Guga Ketzer, a partner with the advertising agency that has worked on the project, says things have gone according to plan in the wake of the incident.
"Actions speak louder than words" Ketzer told AS. "A gesture needs no translation and what we’re seeing is that this has gone viral, globally. The idea was for Neymar to eat the banana, but in the end it was Alves, and that works just the same."
