Ok, I've been biting my tongue about the world cup and the advertising dollars that seem to be getting flushed down the drain (Budweiser? Sponsoring the World Cup? In Germany?)....

Vonage? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Then I see this headline : "World Cup Ratings Score: Up 50% Over 2002"

U.S. TV broadcasts of the 2006 World Cup in Germany on ABC and Univision are posting a 50 percent-plus improvement in viewership so far over the 2002 World Cup event, MediaPost reports.

Through the first 8 games, Univision has been averaging 2.6 million viewers per telecast. ABC's English-language television grabbed a 65 percent gain in ratings from two games versus four years ago.

Uhhhh, let me see, in 2002 the World Cup was in Korea/Japan, and only a couple of nutjobs like me and my friend Jeff in Boston stayed up to watch many of the games. I think the US vs. Germany game started at 3 am EST. Wow, and ratings are up now that the games are on a lunchtime...imagine that.

Personally I think the most innovative bit of advertising in this world cup has come from Coke. Yes, Coke, and it's not on Television, it's called WeAllSpeaKFootball.com, and it's a "group blog."

Oh, and it's not Coke trying to convince you that they give a crap about soccer, they are just providing a great place to talk about the cup and hear from people who are really passionate about it.