What I Learned Today - What's all that noise?

13th June 2010

Post with 15 notes

What’s all that noise?

That buzzing, that drone, the sound of an ”elephant in distress” during the World Cup matches. It’s the vuvuzela, of course.

The vuvuzela is a plastic blowing horn, developed in the 1990s by soccer fan Neil van Schalkwyk. In South Africa, sports fans used to bring homemade tin blowing horns into the games until van Schalkwyk, wi th a grant from South African brewer SAB Miller, developed a plastic one. It is now a $6.5M industry.

In 2008, FIFA had ruled that the vuvuzela would be banned at the 2010 World Cup because it could be used as a weapon. But the South African Football Association argued the vuvuzela was integral to the South African soccer experience, and FIFA dropped the ban for the Confederation Cup and World Cup. The vuvuzela has come to be a symbol of support for the South African team, and has even been referred to as a “12th man” in their match against Mexico.

I don’t think it’s too bad, from a spectator’s view of course. For those that can’t stand it, the South African Earplug Co may have the answer - an earplug in the shape of a vuvuzela. Now that’s great.