Dani Alves’s widely-reported response to having a banana thrown at him was planned in advance, according to reports.
The Barcelona footballer recently started an anti-racism campaign on social media, after he picked up and ate a banana that was thrown at him during a game against Villarreal.
However, Spanish newspaper AS has stated that a marketing firm approached Alves after he and Brazil teammate Neymar were racially abused while playing Espanyol in March.
It is claimed that while Alves did not know the banana would be thrown by the crowd on Sunday (April 27), he and Neymar had decided to eat the fruit on camera if they spotted one.
If the incident occurred, the players were said to have planned for professional ad agency Meio e Mensagen to then promote the footage to raise awareness of racism in football.
Following the incident, several top footballers including Sergio Aguero, Hulk and Roberto Carlos posted images of themselves with a banana.
Guge Ketzen of ad agency Loducca said: “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.”
He added that the hashtags #somostodosmacacos and #weareallmonkeys – used by Neymar on Sunday night – have since gone viral, and were thought up in advance.
“The best way to beat prejudice is to take the sting out of the racist action so it isn’t repeated,” the publicist said. “We created #somostodosmacacos and #weareallmonkeys, with the gesture of eating a banana, and it has been turned into a movement.”
Source: Digital Spy